Every week I have a disaster in my kitchen. The fire alarm goes off repeatedly. But it doesn't stop me being adventurous.

Noel Coward said work is more fun than fun, but then he didn't work in the Bird's Eye factory packing frozen fish fingers nine hours a day, did he?

What was I drinking last night? Furniture polish?

I was a really picky eater as a child. Because I was obsessed by Popeye, my mum and aunts would put my food in a can to represent spinach and we'd hum the Popeye tune and then I'd happily eat it.

If I wanted your opinion, I'd slap it outta ya.

The worst drivers are women in people carriers, men in white vans and anyone in a baseball cap. That's just about everyone.

Channel 4 are a great bunch of people to work with and the crew are lovely. Working at ITV was like being in the court of Caligula.

I dress up as a middle-aged prostitute and do a game show.

It's become normal for me to walk on set as Popeye, Frankenstein or an Elf or even a chicken.

Times are hard and friends are few

I am quite happy to take a cut. You've got to, if you want to work and continue working.

It's my contention that each book creates its own structure and its own length. I've written three or four slim books. It may be that the next novel is a big one, but I don't know.

The structure of the universe is a computational geometry that is fractal in nature.

I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it.

Most people have a time-bound awareness. And the reason is they have sacrificed their self for their self-image.

Try looking at life as a beautifully well-organized dynamic.

People's social networks do not consist only of people they see face to face. In fact, social networks have been extending because of artificial media since the printing press and the telephone.

I always wanted to make a film that had this sort of Chinese-box effect, in which you keep opening it up and opening it up, and finally at the end you're at the beginning.

With growing and intermixed minority populations, our democracy can not work optimally unless all people are integrated as full and equal members, and I think our collective freedom requires that.

The mind of an ordinary man is truly near the heart.

It is impossible for human tongue to exaggerate the riches which a vision from God brings to the soul: it even bestows health and refreshment on the body.