Sin is absence of God. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sometimes I think that novelists suffer from P.C.S.: Perpetual Childhood Syndrome.

The speed of the human mind is remarkable. So is its inability to face the obvious.

If God resides anywhere ... surely he shelters behind barricades of pure chance.

You can tell nothing from a man's appearance, nothing except the depths of your own prejudice.

Faith is the enemy of discovery.

Most of those people who saw themselves as literary types at university became bank managers.

She knows what it is to be sad and miserable, but those emotions are almost enjoyable. They throw moments of happiness and laughter into sharper relief.

If you’re struggling to “think outside the box” remember the box is self-imposed. Who says it has to be a box? Why not a bowl of petunias?

Respect doesn't come without a little resentment.

Employ every economy consistent with thoroughness, accuracy and reliability.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That's hard. But it's the only way.

There is nothing so absurd as knowledge spun too fine.

The final battle against intolerance is to be fought - not in the chambers of any legislature - but in the hearts of men.

If Sunday is the Lord's day, then Saturday belongs to the Devil. It is the only night of the week when he gives out Free passes to the Late show at the Too Much Fun Club.

I won't talk about someone's mother. I won't talk about their girlfriend or their wife, but if you have a deformity, I would talk about that.

The bandstand is an incredible space. It is really a sacred space. One of the things that is really sacred about it is that you have no opportunity to think about the future, or the past.

There's a flip side to having prominent public intellectuals, which is that they start meddling in politics and often with quite disastrous results.