The irony about Charles II is not that he came to the throne because England needed a successor to Charles I, but because England needed a successor to Oliver Cromwell.

Even for the most excitable preacher, there was nothing inherently sinful about a waffle.

Great art has dreadful manners. The greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your reality.

Charlie Hebdo: Satire was the father of true political freedom, born in the 18th century; the scourge of bigots and tyrants. Sing its praises.

Histories never conclude; they just pause their prose. Their stories are, if they are truthful, untidy affairs, resistant to windings-up and sortings-out. They beat raggedly on into the future.

Irreverence is the lifeblood of freedom.

What can art really do in the face of atrocity?

There are some places where history just grabs you by the jugular. This is one of them.

Nations don't start out. There is not a particular moment when they unveil the essence of themselves. They are always a work in progress.

But it struck me that the extreme violence and cruelty of the English Civil War had gone understated.

I actually think that history has fed off the restlessness of cyber space, of kind of the frantic, segmented nature of the way we lead our lives. People want to be connected.

Don't waste your energy in fighting the old. Use it to build the new.

Leadership, where happiness and work works.

Never marry a person who is not a friend of your excitement.

One Fails Before One's Perception...!

I wondered if perhaps I'd gone mad. I had known this man less than twenty-four hours and already I wanted to raise his children.

Witnessing a selfless act brings tears to remind us how we should be treating others.

I feel happier knowing a starting point came from me. And I like stuff that gives you a physical reaction.

I don't miss anything I did for a living.

The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind.

Envy, the meanest of vices, creeps on the ground like a serpent.