Religion is defined as social systems whose participants avow a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.

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.

Each positive thought is your refuge and your sanctuary, where in that thoughtful moment, you are safe.

In music I feel most deeply the passing of things.

Audience participation should extend from on-stage to backstage to under the stage

I'm not so sure the role of the United States is going around the world saying this is the way its gotta be.

The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I conquered, as the first baby in the family always does.

There is no stability without solidarity and no solidarity without stability.

I slammed the door in the child's face, a horrific scream trapped in my throat.

They don't like anyone who isn't Korean, and they don't like each other all that much, either. They're hardheaded, hard-drinking, tough little bastards, 'the Irish of Asia'.

You have to keep your audience in your mind; if you're writing stuff that you know nobody's going to care about then you should rethink what you're doing!

Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry, Nothing but rosy hands in the rising steam And clear dances done in the sight of heaven.