“You can’t have modern states based on ideas which have been out of date for a thousand years.”

Our lives, our stories, flowed into one another’s, were no longer our own, individual, discrete.

One of the strange things about violent and authoritarian regimes is they don’t like the glare of negative publicity.

No, I don’t think it’s fair to label Islam ‘violent.’ But I will say that to my knowledge, no writer has ever gone into hiding for criticizing the Amish.

The only people who see the whole picture,’ he murmured, ‘are the ones who step out of the frame.

One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions.

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.

I don’t dictate to anyone what to believe and what not to. And I don’t want that to be dictated to me either.

Even when things are at their worst, there’s a little voice in your head saying, ‘Good story!’

If you’re offended, it’s your problem.

If somebody’s trying to shut you up, sing louder, and if possible, better.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

We are the storytelling animal.

Stories in families are colossally important. Every family has stories: some funny, some proud, some embarrassing, some shameful. Knowing them is proof of belonging to the family.

Until you know who you are you can’t write.

I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire.

Something was badly amiss with the spiritual life of the planet, Too many demons inside people claiming to believe in God.

You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.

I started with this idea in my head, “There’s two things I’ve got a right to, death or liberty.

I started with this idea in my head, “There’s two things I’ve got a right to, death or liberty.

I’m reading so much and exposing myself to so many new ideas. It almost feels like the chemistry and the structure of my brain is changing so rapidly sometimes.

I see a woman who is rather calm because she doesn’t know what is waiting for her in her life after this. I was still not “that woman” who was hated by the public. I was an artist with fresh ideas.

I will always believe in love, but my idea has changed from what I’ve always thought.

Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual.

Sometimes in life it is a good idea to stop, sometimes it is a good idea to go on. The trick is to decide when to stop.