"I could not be clearer about the threat that comes from what I call the assassin’s veto: people who say, 'If you say that, we will kill you'"

"There is no nobler cause than the freedom of the press; but the more absolute that freedom is, the more ignoble may be the motives of those who avail themselves of it."

"Our decent desire to be polite, combined with our indecent concessions to fear, make reform of Islam less likely"

‘Why can’t we alter the conversation on art from “But is it art?” to “Is it any good?”’