Hitchens: "I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn't ever have to rely on the press for my information."

Hitchens: "My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilisation, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either."

Hitchens: "Trust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake."

Hitchens: "I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness."

Hitchens: "To terrify children with the image of hell... to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?"

Hitchens: "Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God."

Hitchens: "To the dumb question, 'Why me?' the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, 'Why not?'"

Hitchens: "When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed in courtrooms and schoolrooms, always be sure to ask which set. It works every time."

Hitchens: "Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint."

Hitchens: "The advice I've been giving to people all my life - that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can't give up politics, it won't give you up - was the advice I should have been taking myself."

Hitchens: "A gentleman is never rude except on purpose - I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me."

Hitchens: "There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument."