I held my crotch, closed my eyes and repeated my secret catechism.

Something in your voice tells me we approach the question of remuneration.

Empathize with stupidity and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot.

Mr Blawke always reminded me of a heron; I'm not sure why. Something to do with a sense of rapacious stillness, perhaps, and also the aura of one who knows time is on his side.

There's an old Sysan saying that the soup of life is salty enough without adding tears to it.

Torture is such a slippery slope; as soon as you allow a society or any legal system to do that, almost instantly you get a situation where people are being tortured for very trivial reasons.

My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

I remember being shocked when I discovered some of my school pals didn't have books in their homes. I thought it was like not having oxygen, or hot water.

I am, as I have always been, of the opinion that while the niceties of normal moral constraints should be our guides, they must not be our masters.

I've always loved Scotland, and I'm not a huge fan of big cities, to be honest. I like them to dip into for a bit, but I'm not sure I would want to live in one again.

In theory, I work an eight-hour day and a five-day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming.

Before you think of asking for support from someone for the success your dreams, ask yourself "how much of what I have can I invest?" Help yourself first!

He who does not want to understand the Other has no right to say that what the Other does or says makes no sense.

This work of making trade righteous, of Christianizing trade, looks like the very hardest the Gospel has ever had to take in hand—in England at any rate.

I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are.

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.

After all, what would be "beautiful" if the contradiction had not first become conscious of itself, if the ugly had not first said to itself: "I am ugly"?.

Every time, every time a tourist or an immigrant or a refugee shows up in another country there's a security risk.

I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast.

The fans have played a massive part in getting us to where we are, but the job's not finished.