[Kate said to her Jewish colleague]: "There were a dozen different religions among the children at [my school]. We seemed always to be celebrating some kind of feast or ceremony. Usually it required making a noise and dressing up. The official line was that all religions were equally important. I must say that the result was to leave me with the conviction that they were equally unimportant. I suppose if you don't teach religion with conviction it becomes just one more boring subject. Perhaps I'm a natural pagan. I don't go in for all this emphasis on sin, suffering and judgment. If I had a God I'd like Him to be intelligent, cheerful and amusing."

He said: "I doubt whether you'd find him much of a comfort when they herded you into the gas chambers. You might prefer a god of vengeance."