One aspect of fast London life I have never understood, for example, is the custom of the gym. Why do people go to gyms?

The terrible thing about the internet and Amazon is that they take the magic and happy chaos out of book shopping. The internet might give you what you want, but it won't give you what you need.

The art of living is the art of bringing dreams and reality together.

When you go for a walk, take seeds with you, poppies, rainbow chard, rocket. Plant them among the weeds in patches of wasteland. See what happens.

In a world where you are constantly asked to be 'committed,' it is liberating to give yourself the license to be a dilettante. Commit to nothing. Try everything.

There is nothing so perfect as pinball and a pint at 11 a.m.

My idea of childcare at festivals is to sit at a trestle table with an ale while the kids run around and make up their own games.

I count it as a certainty that in paradise, everyone naps.

When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.

Pain will never leave us. Instead of putting energy into destroying pain, we need to put energy into creating pleasure.

Beauty, pleasure, freedom and plenty of sleep: these are the hallmarks of a successful idler's break. Travel should not be hard work.

When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.

Perhaps elements like tenacity and humility combine to form a heroic compound.

I never leaf through a copy of National Geographic without realizing how lucky we are to live in a society where it is traditional to wear clothes.

An assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.

Then in college I became obsessed with film, and wanted to be part of that.

I don't claim to have an answer to every question, but I promise you I have a question for every answer.

The truest self-respect is not to think of self.

..it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world...It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.

I never made 'Who's Who,' but I'm featured in 'What's That?'

Hell and heaven are within you, both gates are within you. When you are behaving unconsciously there is the gate of hell; when you become alert and conscious, there is the gate of heaven.