“No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.”

“The beliefs are almost always the same; it’s just that the histories are different. Everybody wants to believein a higher power. Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves, and everybody wants company in doing that.”

“Through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time. But you can’t get everybody to interpret the result in the same Way. And that’s thrilling to know – that everybody will see it differently.”

“All families are psychotic. Everybody has basically the same family - it's just reconfigured slightly different from one to the next.”

“religions have much, much more in common than they like to admit. The beliefs are almost always the same; it’s just that the histories are different. Everybody wants to believe in a higher power. Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves, and everybody wants company in doing that. They want there to be a force of good on earth, and they want an incentive to be a part of that force. They want to be able to prove their belief and their belonging, through rituals and devotion. They want to touch the enormity.”

“Everybody asks the same questions -- but they don't know that they ask the same questions.”