Sometimes, the only way of doing something is to do it.

We wouldn't care so much what people thought of us if we knew how seldom they did.

You heard people say forty was the new thirty and fifty was the new forty and sixty was the new forty-five, but you never heard anybody say eighty was the new anything. Eighty was just eighty.

The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.

The City is, in terms of its basic functioning, a far-off country of which we know little.

The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form of control.

But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how to put it right.

In other words, RBS had its origins in a failed speculation, a bail-out, and a financial crash so big it helped destroy Scotland's status as a separate nation.

The seven Ps: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevent Piss-Poor Performance

It's as if people used the invention of seat belts as an opportunity to take up drunk driving.

People would rather earn 60 grand in an area where their neighbours earn 40, than earn 80 in an area where their neighbours earn a hundred.

We might give her presents, tell some tales, but would she ever be able to really understand what the journey had been like for us?

I think if you want to make an impact, you've got to say what you feel and do what you feel.

People would write me hate letters. How dare I try to represent Hispanics when I was so white? I tried to make them see it was racism.

Well, I'm a huge fan of Ryan Adams, who's from North Carolina. And he's beginning to break really quite big.

One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl.

Nowadays you need so much money to be able to launch a new artist, notably in America; you would hardly believe the sums involved.

I think forgiveness plays a very important part in Western society and it comes from the Judeo Christian heritage.

One thing I have learned about Christians, having organized them for years - when they lose, they quit. And when they win they quit. We are just quitters.

A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read as it should be.

Great saints have often been made out of great sinners, but not one was ever made out of a wimp.