I think people's perception of a rich girl is literal but metaphorically I embrace it as being rich in love spirit joy and religion. So it's not about money.

Religion creates community community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness.

I try to just talk about human stories and what I think about religion or teapots or whatever.

Beside all this I think there was something personal being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following yet it's so little known about it which surprised me.

I've had trouble now and again in Nigeria because I have spoken up about the mistreatment of factions in the country because of difference in religion. These are things we should put behind us.

It's been mentioned or suggested that Paradise will not be well studied because it's about this unimportant intellectual topic which is religion.

I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way.

I'm actually an evangelical atheist but there is something I recognise about religion: that it gives people a chance to surrender.

Don't try to tear down other people's religion about their ears Build up your own perfect structure of truth and invite your listeners to enter in and enjoy it's glories.

Religion has caused more harm than any other idea since the beginning of time. There's nothing good I can say about it. People use it as a crutch.

If I don't talk about my religion if I say I'm not discussing it or different humanitarian things I'm working on they're like 'He's avoiding it.' If I do talk about it it becomes 'Oh he's proselytizing.'

Joy in the universe and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion.

The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people and then they come after you with machetes.

More and more people care about religious tolerance as fewer and fewer care about religion.

I am looking for a character that connects to me on some level. It has to be about something it has to have depth to it and it has to be about something. The story of the character and their relationship with the people and places around them appeal to me and are what I look for.

I think I learned about the relationship between books and life from Margaret Mitchell.

But John Landis wrote a good relationship which is really what the film's about. A very straightforward young woman who's very sure of herself and she meets a young man who needs some taking care of.

The people at the record company had asked me if I could write a song about my life my relationship with God and where I'm from. Well I can't write a song on purpose my songs come in a moment of inspiration or desperation.

I have never lied about my relationship with Bill Clinton. The only proven liar at this point and the only admitted liar is Bill Clinton not Gennifer Flowers not Kathleen Willey not Paula Jones and not Monica Lewinsky at this point. He is the only proven liar.

On several occasions I discussed with Bill Clinton the subject of inquiries by the media about our relationship. He told me to continue to deny our relationship that if we would stick together everything would be okay.

But I have tried to go over it very carefully not merely what the evidence is but with psychoanalysts and psychologists and I think we're just about all agreed that Lincoln and Speed did not have a homosexual relationship.

I have a much wider freer view about spirituality. I feel that people need to pursue it on their own personally. You know let it be theirs - a personal relationship with their soul or their God or with their church.

The closer and more confidential our relationship with someone the less we are entitled to ask about what we are not voluntarily told.