Steve Irwin did wonderful conservation work but I was uncomfortable about some of his stunts. Even if animals aren't aware that you are not treating them with respect the viewers are.

There is a lovable quality about the actual tools. One feels so kindly to the thing that enables the hand to obey the brain. Moreover one feels a good deal of respect for it without it the brain and the hand would be helpless.

I don't believe war is a way to solve problems. I think it's wrong. I don't have respect for the people that made the decisions to go on with war. I don't have that much respect for Bush. He's about war I'm not about war - a lot of people aren't about war.

I'm an atheist but I'm very relaxed about it. I don't preach my atheism but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do.

There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus but we do not on that account value him less.

We learned about gratitude and humility - that so many people had a hand in our success from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean... and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect.

The person who comes up to you and makes the most noise and is the most intrusive is invariably the person in the room who has no respect for you at all and it's really all about them.

I've been a little bit obsessed with religion without being a religious person for about a decade.

I'm not embarrassed about the novels I wrote when I was younger but I couldn't write them today because of my religion.

It's very difficult to talk about religion in Iran because religion has gotten so mixed up with politics.