You start at the stupid end of the book, and if you're lucky you finish at the smart end.

There are things you break that can't be put back together again. And Kashmir may be one of them.

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms.

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.

Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.

‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.

In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.

Language upon a silvered tongue affords enchantment enough.

The whole story of migration and what that has done in interconnecting the planet is obviously something I've written about a lot.

faith without doubt is addiction

The world I held so closely, she played me like a game, I released and left her laughing to stand on my own two feet.

In Egypt, every family is suffering from the deteriorated schooling and university system of the Mubarak regime. What families want most of all is to secure a good education for their children.

Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.

Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will.

Discovery comes as a result of positive discontent, a constructive dissatisfaction. In fact, one might quite truthfully say that there is no discovery when one is content.

Common sense is as rare as genius.

I find that when you see somebody in the tabloids all the time, you have no desire to see them in movies.

Courtney Love is a loose cannon. She says what she thinks. She's wild on the red carpet. You get the best sound bites from Courtney Love.

I was born William. My father was William. I came from a big family, I hated being called Billy. Willem's a nickname; it's a Dutch name, very common in the Netherlands.

Only the police should have handguns.