To the man who reads ‚Scouting for Boys‘ superficially, there is a disappointing lack of religion in the book. But to him who tries it in practice, the basic religion underlying it soon becomes apparent.

I believe in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

You can be committed to Church but not committed to Christ, but you cannot be committed to Christ and not committed to church.

To me, ideology is corrupt; it’s a parasite on religious structures. To be an ideologue is to have all of the terrible things that are associated with religious certainty and none of the utility. If you’re an ideologue, you believe everything that you think. If you’re religious, there’s a mystery left there.

Certainly I’m not going to sit on the Internet all day and read what Sam from Iowa is saying about me. But I’m a sponge. I’ve always been a sponge.

To master a new technology, you have to play with it.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

A good day is one where I can not just read a book, but write a review of it. Maybe today I’ll be able to do that. I get for some reason somewhat stronger when the sun starts to go down. Dusk is a good time for me. I’m crepuscular.

I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.

I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.

The most powerful idea that’s entered the world in the last few thousand years – the idea of grace – is the reason I would like to be a Christian.

Opposite to godliness is atheism in profession, and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind, that it never had many professors.

The true university of these days is a collection of books.

When I started analysing games in 2001, I had a DVD recorder. I’d be at home watching the games just on a normal TV, watching what I could and trying to figure out what we would be facing a few weeks later. The problem was, in the team meetings, I’d always have to keep going back and forwards with the footage, trying to get to the right part.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

Spiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul! It kills the Church!

I would always want printed books.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

The Hindu religions gave me the impression of a vast well into which one plunges in order to grasp the reflection of the sun.

When we’re falling in love or out of it, that’s when we most need a song that says how we feel. Yeah, I write a lot of songs about boys. And I’m very happy to do that.

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society.

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all – make us laugh, think, cry and cheer – preferably in that order.

I can’t prove it scientifically, that there’s a God, but I believe.

The violence in the Bible is appalling.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

The bat is not a toy, it’s a weapon. It gives me everything in life, which helps me to do everything on the field.

I spend a lot of time reading.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

For people who are readers, reading is important to them.

The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.

I was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn’t understand it then, but now, now I understand it.

Everybody has a job to do. There are people in Iraq on both sides of this war who do what they do for religious reasons, and they feel with God on their side. Some people are good at annihilating people. Maybe that’s their gift.

The reason why I wear gold – I wear gold for three reasons. One, when Jesus was born, three wise men came from the east: one brought frankincense, one brought myrrh, the other one brought gold. The second reason I wear gold is I can afford it. The third reason I wear it, it’s symbolic of my African heritage.

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world… to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.

If it’s all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it’s all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that’s it. You’re not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You’re not going to read that book again.

My religion encompasses all religions. I believe in God, I believe in the universe. I believe you are god, I believe I am god; I believe the earth is god and the universe is god. We’re all god.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

You hear a lot about God these days: God, the beneficent; God, the all-great; God, the Almighty; God, the most powerful; God, the giver of life; God, the creator of death. I mean, we’re hearing about God all the time, so we better learn how to deal with it. But if we know anything about God, God is arbitrary.

I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.

Whatever came to mind, whatever came to hand, I would read.

Faith never makes a confession.

The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.

I always say that people should not rush to change religions. There is real value in finding the spiritual resources you need in your home religion.

No religion has mandated killing others as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion.

I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.

Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?