Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

Fundamentalism isn't about religion, it's about power.

We humans are naturally disposed to worship gods and heroes, to build our pantheons and valhallas. I would rather see that impulse directed into the adoration of daft singers, thicko footballers and air-headed screen actors than into the veneration of dogmatic zealots, fanatical preachers, militant politicians and rabid cultural commentators.

Don't let the zealots make Muslim a terrifying word."

[1,000 Days 'Trapped Inside a Metaphor' (Columbia University / The New York Times, December 12, 1991)]

The politics of the possible was being replaced by the politics of purity.

There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck-rake.