A lot of people because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed to be the repository of other people's hope.

Women are oppressed in the east in the west in the south in the north. Women are oppressed inside outside home a woman is oppressed in religion she is oppressed outside religion.

I don't believe in organized religion - I dealt with them hand in hand and a whole bunch of Catholic priests tried to molest me. Telling me I was gay and I should go home with them and stuff.

How do you make any sense of history art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions?

India is a curious place that still preserves the past religions and its history. No matter how modern India becomes it is still very much an old country.

Anybody who comes to the cinema is bringing they're whole sexual history their literary history their movie literacy their culture their language their religion whatever they've got. I can't possibly manipulate all of that nor do I want to.

If you take a look at history you will find that the understanding of what is good and evil has always existed before the individual religions. The religions were only invented by people afterwards in order to express this idea.

If you look at U.S. history through religious history there is very much a motif that shows the importance religion has played in the U.S. We're a very religious country and it affects the way we look at various political issues.

Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea.

Fascism is a religion. The twentieth century will be known in history as the century of Fascism.