I seemed to recall some words from an old Zen master, something like, "My Zen cuts down mountains." My rejection of Buddhism was a cutting down of mountains; that is precisely how it felt to me.

I grew up with tarot cards and the reading of tea leaves.

My favourite tea is lapsang souchong.

I'm more a dog person than a cat person.

I grew up in North Devon, by the sea, and feel a special affinity for the landscape there, despite a lack of actual ancestry.

I was born in the seventies, age of bad haircuts and grainy colour photos.

I've never been baptised.

[My muse] is, in fact, a woman of the world, and precisely because of this, hopes that a diversity of cultures will endure, and that one bland monoculture does not swamp everything.

If we do want to do that [ colonise space to survive, ], then vacuous materialism is not going to be enough for us.

If we do overcome linear time, I would hope this means dwelling more directly in the fertility of the imagination rather than denying it, as some aspects of Buddhism seem to.

Some Buddhists, however, never seem to get past the void, and I suppose I view this as a kind of Buddhist 'Old Testament' that I don't especially like.

May you let the authentic colors of your heart illuminate and may you feel the light within others.

I am a big admirer of Paul Scholes, he is one of the best players of his generation.

Everybody has their opinion and they are going to critique you.

Quit everything until you find something that you just cannot quit.

I think what's fun about the fairytales is just seeing what everybody interprets them as, which comes from the different directors and what they want to do with them.

My friends, if we are going to do a great work for God, we must spend much time in prayer; we have got to be closeted with God.

He tastes like mint and need, as he overpowers me with his tongue.

Let us free all the animals in the zoos to show them that we are not animals!

The Japanese are hard to understand, but once you do the world is your oyster.

You cried when He took away your drop of water, not knowing He'd saved for you, the sea.