Paddington Bear was a refugee with a label - 'Please look after this bear. Thank you', and he had a little suitcase.

Every small boy wanted to be a steam engine driver when they grew up in the old days, including me. There's something very special about them - the noise, the smell, the steam coming out everywhere.

It's nice having a bear about the house.

My daughter Karen was born in 1958, the year my first Paddington book came out, so she grew up with him.

As a cameraman, I was paid to stand within a few feet of Yehudi Menuhin performing. I saw Rudolph Nureyev dancing. I couldn't believe I was being paid for that.

I have a flat in Paris and go there a lot, but the Eurostar's much more civilised than flying.

From the very beginning, there was not the slightest doubt that Olga da Polga was the sort of guinea pig who would go places.

For all that my co-workers put such stock in not being a transfer, we had a definite edge in one area. As a human, you were born knowing that you were going to die.

I realized that poverty was a kind of captivity.

As a rose blossoms despite being surrounded by thorns, bloom despite being surrounded by troubles.

Im better for it and I prefer to keep things simple and see what sounds I can get out of my head and hands rather than relying on a sound that someone else created.

Two passed pawns advancing on the enemy pieces have brought me more than a dozen points in tournaments.

Every few years we disappear, Zoey. All our cells are replaced by others. Not a single bit of me is the same as when I was last in this room.

I think that everything's hard now anyways, so you might as well do stuff that you love and believe in.

To know Pritkin was to want to kill him, but so far I'd resisted temptation.

I've always felt that one of the mistakes people make is that they try to do something that is just slightly beyond their skill set, and then feel they've failed.

Traumatic events always happen exactly two years before I reach the maturity level to deal with them.