I miss being fawned over by restaurateurs and chefs.

People in London think of London as the center of the world, whereas New Yorkers think the world ends three miles outside of Manhattan.

I expect that in 40 years' time I'll be writing political tomes and working for an organisation like Oxfam.

I tried being a mechanic and I tried catering, but I realized I had even less aptitude for semi-skilled labour than for academic work.

Everyone said to me growing up, "You're like an American. You have to go to America. That's your spiritual home."

My life's ambition is to play a James Bond villain. I have the cat and the eye-patch, so I'm just waiting for the call. For some reason, though, the phone hasn't rung.

I've become a professional failure - in order to pay the mortgage I have to remain unemployed. Luckily, a disaster always seems to befall me at exactly the right moment.

I don't envy young Brits crossing the Atlantic to make their fortunes today.

Top Chef is a very smooth-running machine. All the people working there are incredibly professional and absolutely at the top of their game.

I wouldn't describe myself as a master of anything.

There's no reason why you can't deliver a grammar-school curriculum to an all-ability intake.

When love is not madness it is not love.

The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.

my life was lived through falling rainso call on me if there be pain

My biggest regret in life is that I didn't hit John Denver in the mouth while I has the chance.

You should not be misled about the so-called single opposition candidate. There are so many of them now that you will lack the fingers to count them.

going back and forth, back and forth, getting nowhere

In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury.

Let me repeat: Observe a particle as a wave, and it is a wave. Observe it as matter, and it is matter. ... Thus it is our point of view, the way we look at reality that makes reality the way it is.

I've never been a goalscorer, only own goals. Good own goals.

The heart does not lie.