"It matters, it always matters, to name rubbish as rubbish ... to do otherwise is to legitimize it."

"God, Satan, Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my fifteenth year, when I quite abruptly lost my faith. ... an…"

"Children are the vessels into which adults pour their poison."

"Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of ever…"

"Nowadays, however, a powerful tribe of clerics has taken over Islam. These are the contemporary Thought Police. They …"

"The zealots also attack me by false analogy, comparing my book to pornography and demanding a ban on both. Many Islam…"

"It is a funny view of the world that a book can cause riots."

"The responsibility for violence lies with those who perpetrate it."

"The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn …"

"Those who oppose the novel most vociferously today are of the opinion that intermingling with a different culture wil…"