The Religious Sense: Sean Penn

“Why are we close friends? I don’t ask. I don’t want to know. Love the mystery. Don’t want to know why I’m here, per se, in life. Feel it, follow the feeling. But don’t want the answer. Don’t believe I’ll get it. Don’t want the safety net of ‘Am I gonna have an afterlife or not?” He continued, “Somebody says there’s a God. I think it’s a kind of funny notion. Somebody says there’s not. I think it’s a funny notion. To know is a funny notion. And so you know, if I’ve got religion, it’s the mystery of the thing.”

- the actor Sean Penn (1960-), from an article titled Citizen Penn. The Many Missions of Sean Penn, by John Larh, in the April 3rd, 2006 issue of The New Yorker magazine.