I don't really like the autumn. For me it is the beginning of winter and I hate the winter. White, the colour of death.

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?

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.

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.

The Smile of a Child enlarge the universe (D'un enfant le sourire - Agrandit l'univers)

Being a lone wolf is sometimes better than being in a pack.

We "need" cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.

Trying harder doesn’t always equal more success; it leads to more frustration, less satisfaction, and giving up.

I used to be ashamed And now I am proud. The world once was black And now it is bright. I used to walk head bent And now I stand up tall. I used to have dreams But now I have hope.

Feeling alone and unseen can intensify the experience of being harassed, shamed, or bullied.

People can criticise me all day long. It just washes off me. You might as well be talking to a wall.

It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment.

So stop sulking. You're not old enough for the cool, tortured look.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.