“Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black.”

“The universe is a million billion light-years wide, and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. This is the position of the universe with regards to human life.”

“It is straightforwardand never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion.”

“The deal with multiculturalism is that the only culture you're allowed to disapprove of is your own.”

“My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.”

“Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.”

“Denna is a wild thing," I explained. "Like a hind or a summer storm. If a storm blows down your house, or breaks a tree, you don't say the storm was mean. It was cruel. It acted according to its na...”

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

“Cruelty and fear shake hands together. An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.”