“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.”

“Magna Carta has become totemic. It is in the comedy of Tony Hancock, in the poetry of Kipling, never far from the front pages in a constitutional crisis.”

“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 OWE Christianity a debt, and so, I believe, does the world we have lived in for the last 2000 years.”

“Christianity also owes me an explanation... For the bigotry, the wickedness, the inhumanity and the wilful ignorance which has also characterized much of its history.”

“I am the perfect version of me.”

“But if you tame me, then weshall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, Ishall be unique in all the world.”

“I don't want the world to keep turning without me on it.”

“Song of myselfNow I will do nothing but listen, To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it. I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack ...”

“Learn when to talk and when to listen. If you're unsure, listen.”

“The Genie declared that in his time and place there were scientists of the passions who maintained that language itself, on the one hand, originated in 'infantile pregenital erotic exuberance, poly...”

“She has her own brand of strength,brought to the surface by the dim glow of the streetlight and the whisper of night air on her skin.”

“The toddler must say no in order to find out who she is. The adolescent says no to assert who she is not.”

“You label somebody 'New Age,' and that's automatic mockery: 'She cannot possibly be a serious thinker.'”