Cod is more responsible for the discovery of the New World than almost anything else. Drove the Vikings across the North Atlantic, and John Cabot discovered America by looking for cod.

Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from - dare I say it - God.

You know, I used to warm the thermometer on the light bulb... I was really good at being sick. I could forge my mother's signature on a sick note so well I was hardly ever at school.

Stationery is addictive. I get mine made in Paris at Benetton, and writing on it gives me a strange thrill.

Many men think they're playboys but they invariably land wide of the mark. Surrounding yourself with champagne, fast friends and paid escorts is the very definition of the word 'loser'.

Water-boarding can result in damage to the lungs and the brain, as well as long-term psychological trauma.

I think the absence of socks on men wearing suits and brogues is a problem. They'll live to regret that.

As you get older and fatter, good clothes can hide a lot.

In less than a year, the Bush administration will strut out of office, leaving the country in roughly the same condition a toddler leaves a diaper.

Life is all about seating and lighting.

I might wear a dinner jacket once a year to our Oscar party - that's a big thing - but I don't go to parties. I'm social but I'm not a socialite person.

Men of passion and vision are often seen as mad.

Successful people use failures to sharpen their intuition by acknowledging mistakes for what they truly are - feedback.

Love well, laugh often and live well for Christ.

When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.

Magic is a performance, and a performance should have an honesty, a relevance and a resonance if it is to be offered to spectators without insulting them.

If I ever have a son, I would call him Frankie, and it's a family name - it's my dad and my dad's dad, so you know, it sticks. I won't forget it.

There is something about the ritual of the race - putting on the number, lining up, being timed - that brings out the best in us.

Entirely new concepts are very rare in politics.

God never intended for us to simply be the objects of His love. We are also called to be the instruments of that love in the lives of others.

It was a bit of fun. But of course like anything that starts as a joke, people started to take it all seriously!