"We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying."

"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides."

"Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices."

"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy."

"Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane."

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

"Our moral responsibility is not to stop the future, but to shape it, to channel our destiny in humane directions and to ease the trauma of transition."

"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."