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

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

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.

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.

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.

The weather was clear and still, and the countless stars opened above them, seeming like brilliant cold fruits that Maerad could simply pick out of the sky.

There is no way of knowing for sure whether or not you can trust someone, for the simple reason that circumstances change all of the time.

I don't see a coherent global order anywhere on the horizon.

All of us, whether or not we're celebrities, every one ought to spend part of their life making someone else's life better.

Every problem is an ego problem. In order to have a problem there has to be an ego-frustration.

Ray Gomez is one of the greatest guitarists of all times!

I play football, and most football players are camera shy. We just want to be left alone; we just want to stick to what we do.

Most artists have contracts directly with the record company, and when they do music, all of their music is owned by the record company. But I did mine through a production company.

Accessibility drives traffic and growth in technology. That's a proven trend in technology.

They offered me one cover about 10 years ago, and I said, no, I can't do it. I'm happy to cover up now.