I always think that good writers should be growing up on the brink of death - it really lets them see mortality very clearly.

I was very, very sick when I was growing up in Russia. The ambulance constantly came to our house. I had horrible asthma that is easily treated in America, but they didn't even have inhalers back in Russia.

I love things on the decline because that's really the natural progression of our lives. We're born, we're feisty for the first couple of years, and then the inevitable decline begins.

I have a love/hate relationship with just about everything, but certainly with America.

I have to go on being a priest and bishop, that is, to celebrate God and what God has done in Jesus, and to offer in God's name whatever I can discern of God's perspective on the world around - something which involves both challenge and comfort.

I grew up Catholic. The Catholic faith has played an integral role in my life. At the same time, I don't think that there is a single person that doesn't have some disagreements with their faith.

Ours is a country built more on people than on territory. The Jews will come from everywhere: from France, from Russia, from America, from Yemen... Their faith is their passport.

An important consequence of freeing oneself from the fear of death is a radical opening to spirituality of a universal and non-denominational type.