People in the BBC are always dying to get out of their open-plan offices.

Be careful about the advice you give, especially to your children.

I was getting rewarded for writing well, from about the age of five or six. A teacher would say, "Look what Andrew has written," and I thought, "Maybe I could be a writer."

People like bonnets. I don't think you can under-estimate that.

I used to have this Mercedes, a dark blue 450SLC, which was the most beautiful car. I'd like to have another unusual, beautiful car.

When you see two writers named on a movie, one of them did some drafts and got the boot.

Novels often have leisurely openings; a TV drama needs an arresting opening.

I prefer love scenes to be shot up close with a lot of focus on eyes and mouths. Otherwise it can feel uncomfortable and voyeuristic.

As a fairly innocent teenager, growing up in a village in Wales, I just thought, "God, I would like to go and hang about Soho and write great poetry and try to avoid drinking myself to death."

I'm absolutely delighted if people think of me as a reliable purveyor of quality period stuff.

I suppose I have the tastes of someone who teaches at a university in the provinces.

The sooner we find the answer to the question “Where am I going?” the greater result in life we can achieve

To be respected is not my concern. So long as I seek to live in obedience to my Lord, respect will come accordingly from the people He deems it necessary.

Smiles are such a simple thing to give but means so much to many.

If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy but we want to be happier than other people which is almost always difficult since we think them happier than they are.

It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit.

I am sure that if you plant the trees back again, it will do nothing but good.

I draw the line at letting people into my songwriting cave. To me, that's where the alchemy happens and where the mystery is.

Sometimes shame is a more powerful engine than rage.

It is not that love is blind. It is that love sees with a painter's eye, finding the essence that renders all else background.

We share half our genes with the banana. [After the announcement Jun 2000 that a working draft of the genetic sequence of humans had been completed by the Human Genome Project.]