The intention was not to say that all religions are equal but that all people are equal, and that acceptance of diversity is the opposite of racism, ... I don't like the word tolerance. I prefer the word respect. If you're comfortable with what you are, you can mix with others, because they can enrich you, culturally and spiritually.

I'd like to get to the point where words like Yom Kippur, or Ramadan, or Christmas become part of the same language.

Being moderate or tolerant or open is not a sign of weakness but of civilization and strength, ... It means we can all live in the same house as equals.

Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.

We are never through with the requirement for acceptance. This isn't a curse limited to the inadequate and the weak. Insecurity may even be a peculiar sign of well-being. It means we haven't allowed ourselves to take other people for granted, that we remain realistic enough to see that things could genuinely turn out badly and that we are invested enough to care.

What makes people good communicators is, in essence, an ability not to be fazed by the more problematic or offbeat aspects of their own characters. They can contemplate their anger, their sexuality, and their unpopular, awkward, or unfashionable opinions without losing confidence or collapsing into self-disgust. They can speak clearly because they have managed to develop a priceless sense of their own acceptability. They like themselves well enough to believe that they are worthy of, and can win, the goodwill of others if only they have the wherewithal to present themselves with the right degree of patience and imagination.

As children, these good communicators must have been blessed with caregivers who knew how to love their charges without demanding that every last thing about them be agreeable and perfect. Such parents would have been able to live with the idea that their offspring might sometimes—for a while, at least—be odd, violent, angry, mean, peculiar, or sad, and yet still deserve a place within the circle of familial love.