“Impiety, n. Your irreverence toward my deity.”
“You’ve always called me irreverent. You’ve branded me irreverent. In my mind you invented irreverent.”
“If there is any irreverence in my own work, I hope it is the irreverence I bear in mistrusting my own sincere self, which then sincerely mistrusts the irreverent me. If there is a bottom to this, I think it is a life’s work.”
“English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).”
“I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.”
“[I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it.”