In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.

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.

Crook your finger

The story of how I left Huckleberry begins -- as do all worthy stories -- with a goat

I get my best ideas in a thunderstorm. I have the power and majesty of nature on my side.

The rottenness comes from within.

All patriarchal societies are either preparing for war, at war, or recovering from war.

The true Amphitryon is the Amphitryon where we dine.

There is no power without justice.

We're all Africans, everyone - black, white, yellow.

The king of comedy is dead. Richard Pryor was the king of comedy. The rest of them are the king of copycats.

Men put me on a pedestal, then never come to visit.