[On the United States:] A nation which does not appreciate that the simple elocution exercise 'Merry Mary married hairy Harry' contains not one but three vowel sounds.

You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.

Gracious dying is a huge, macabre and expensive joke on the American public.

Objectivity? I've always had an objective.

Picking other people's brains is an art worth cultivating.

Things on the whole are much faster in America; people don't 'stand for election', they 'run for office.'

Enemies are, to me, as important as friends in my life, and when they die I mourn their passing.

The character and mentality of the keepers may be of more importance in understanding prisons than the character and mentality of the kept.

I have nothing against undertakers personally. It's just that I wouldn't want one to bury my sister.

Growing up in the English countryside seemed an interminable process. Freezing winter gave way to frosty spring, which in turn merged into chilly summer-but nothing ever, ever happened.

Society created the prison in its own image; will history, with its penchant for paradox, reverse those roles?

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

I think the only thing that I really haven't done much in, and I haven't felt too attracted to, is romantic comedies.

Pleas'd look forward, pleas'd to look behind,And count each birthday with a grateful mind.

Alligator: The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World.

God is a kooky God who can scarcely bear to be without us.

Thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other and all tugging at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole.

My family has had to move and change their name and have been subject to threats from right wing blogs calling for my son, for example, to be killed to get at me.

I'm defending free speech pretty much all over the place because you still have freedom of speech.

In man's brain the impressions from outside are not merely registered; they produce concepts and ideas. They are the imprint of the external world upon the human brain.

Making your first feature film is actually impossible.