Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.

All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by. . . .

What we are seeking so frantically elsewhere may turn out to be the horse we have been riding all along.

Secularism is not only indifferent to alternative religious systems, but as a religious ideology it is opposed to any other religious systems. It is therefore a closed system.

Somewhere deep down we know that in the final analysis, we do decide things and that even our decisions to let someone else decide are really our decisions, however pusillanimous.

Not to decide is to decide.

The political is replacing the metaphysical as the characteristic mode of grasping reality.

God laughs, it seems, because God knows how it all turns out in the end.

Man must now assume the responsibility for his world. He can no longer shove it off on religious power.

The real ecumenical crisis today is not between Catholics and Protestants but between traditional and experimental forms of church life.

The comic, more than the tragic, because it ignites hope, leads to more, not less, participation in the struggle for a just world.

Madness is the acme of intelligence.

If you're 25 years old dressed up like Superman at a comic book convention, that's great. If you're 78 and you're doing it, something's wrong.

The god of compassion is NOT the god of justice.

And, of course, the funniest food of all, kumquats.

I fell in love again (laughs).

Fate has a way of getting what she wants, no matter how we try to avoid it.

There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis.

Equipment makes my job easier, but it doesn't affect my style.

We like to believe that, in our lifetime, the human condition is improving.

Rest strengthens the body, the mind too is thus supported; but unremitting toil destroys both.