Occasionally now I feel a wang that goes in my head - once you've got it you've got it. The [illness] was quite severe, leaving me deeply unhappy and frightened.

History is too often the refuge of the tidy-minded, making neat patterns when the dust has settled.

There's nothing the British like better than a bloke who comes from nowhere, makes it, and then gets clobbered.

To hear the Treorchy Male Choir in full throat is one of the great joys of choral music.

Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.

When anybody tells you something about writing, somebody will tell you something completely different and they will also be right

More people now work in the arts than the steel, coal and car industries combined.

Is it rather stupid and dangerous to take Magna Carta so much for granted, as many of us seem to do, and to think of this attitude as 'very English?'

I'm not a fan of the working class being mocked, including by some of our famous writers - even those who came from it.

The arts stimulate imagination. They provoke thought. And then, having done that, all sorts of other things happen.

Dame Barbara Cartland was an endearing eccentric, and when I interviewed her, she wanted me to listen to her dictating to her secretary one of those romantic novels that she turned out fortnightly.

Science adjusts its views based on what's observedFaith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved.

I feel very proud of the work from the '80s because it is very bright and colorful.

Trust that things will be okay - especially if you put in the time and effort to make them be okay.

What is life without liberty; and what is liberty without equality of rights?

You can only come to the morning through the shadows.

Above all, learn how to breathe correctly.

I love the dignity in the name Philadelphia, but at heart, we're Philly.

Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God, and tell the truth.

So let me end with the wish that you find the same kind of happyiness, and laughter, and love, that I have found, and that you have the wisdon to make them last.

Fear is the most damnable, damaging thing to human personality in the whole world.