I was born in Norwich in 1946, and educated in England, Zimbabwe, and Australia, before my family settled in North Wales.

True education flowers at the point when delight falls in love with responsibility.

You cannot change what you are, only what you do.

That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

One curious thing about growing up is that you don't only move forward in time; you move backwards as well, as pieces of your parents' and grandparents' lives come to you.

We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.

I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.

If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you're willing to risk failure.

Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.

Just finished 'Secrecy' - truly enthralling both as a love story and as a tale of suspense - but much more than both.

Everything’s different from us. That’s why everything exists.

I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.

Have some fun while you wait for the will of heaven.

Why must I be lonely in love?

If you focus on sandbagging the beachhead, you can ignore the tsunami that's approaching. Try it any other way and you'll go crazy.

I think the posture of confidence can serve you well. I'm not sure what's to be gained by sitting at your computer and beating yourself up.

The world's gotten smaller by virtue of the Internet and new media.

We didn't do much different against LeBron. We were just more active and more competitive.

How can someone like Alain Juppé still claim I haven't condemned the Paris and Brussels attacks, when I actually have. What I am saying is crystal clear.

No society could advance if everyone was smaller than his place.