I went to boarding school and then I went to Oxford, and I know how easy it is for certain groups of people to become wholly insulated from ordinary life.

I was born too late for steam trains and a lazy eye meant I'd never be an astronaut.

It wasn't about believing this or that, it wasn't even about good and evil and right and wrong, it was about finding the strength to bear the discomfort that came with being in the world.

And it occurred to him that there were two parts to being a better person. One part was thinking about other people. The other part was not giving a toss what other people thought.

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.

On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.

Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.

No one wants to know how clever you are. They don't want an insight into your mind, thrilling as it might be. They want an insight into their own.

You love someone, you've got to let something go.

For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people.

From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.

I knew very little about the religion. [Christianity] It had a reputation for few gods and great violence. But good schools.

no life of faith can be lived privately. There must be an overflow into the lives of others.

And I'm not anti-sequel, but I just feel like there are very few ideas that are meant to be continued.

The title of a song is like the wrapping on a present.

She [Marilyn Monroe] was good at being inarticulately abstracted for the same reason that midgets are good at being short.

From the very nature of progress, all ages must be transitional.

I think people who are fanatical about anything are funny.

I've never yet met a man who could look after me. I don't need a husband. What I need is a wife.

Whether we want them or not, the New Year will bring new challenges; whether we seize them or not, the New year will bring new opportunities.

If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.