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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Denominations divide while the cross unites.

Believe and be so strong in virtues like character, instead of looking for miracles.

So: we're all tired. Now what? Manuscripts written in Club Med?

Because life is short but sweet for certain

I'd forgotten what it was like to play music and have it be fun so I decided to stop. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make a new record, I was just kinda quitting.

God incarnate is the end of fear; and the heart that realizes that, realizes that he is in the midst, that takes heed to the assurance of his loving presence, will be quiet in the midst of alarm.

There is no harder shield for the devil to pierce with temptation than singing with prayer.

It is difficult not to wonder whether that combination of elements which produces a machine for labor does not create also a soul of sorts, a dull resentful metallic will, which can rebel at times.

I think I am aging, but I'm enjoying the process.

Straight photography, following the medium, is intoxicating - trying to wrestle it into the form of a poem.