Now that mobile phones and the internet have altered the epistemic selective landscape in a revolutionary way, every religious organisation must scramble to evolve defences or become extinct.

The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.

The idea that God is a worthy recipient of our gratitude for the blessings of life but should not be held accountable for the disasters is a transparently disingenuous innovation of the theologians.

Life itself is just a thin coat of paint on the planet, and we hold the paintbrush.

There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them-especially not from yourself.

What you can imagine depends on what you know.

There are no forces on this planet more dangerous to all of us than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism.

There may be things that are completely unknowable to us, so we must be careful not to treat the limits of our knowledge as sure guides to the limit of what there is.

A child raised on a desert island, alone, without social interaction, without language, and thus lacking empathy, is still a sentient being.

There is no polite way to suggest to someone that they have devoted their life to a folly.

...the winter is kind and leaves red berries on the boughs for hungry sparrows...

Leave it to the Americans to use love as a motivational tool while challenging insects to declare whether they are with you or against you.

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.

It makes a world of difference when you start with an amazing script.

I'm not much of a joke writer.

Whether it's a street poster on a brick wall, a magazine cover on a newsstand, or animation on a movie screen - art is an effective means of communicating with large numbers of people.

I grew up in east Tennessee, and everybody knew everybody's business.

As long as I can remember, I've always loved people.

I run or walk three times a week. I do Pilates, too, which is amazing - it makes you longer and leaner.

There is a divine purpose behind everything - and therefore a divine presence in everything.