The arts stimulate imagination. They provoke thought. And then, having done that, all sorts of other things happen.

History is too often the refuge of the tidy-minded, making neat patterns when the dust has settled.

There's nothing the British like better than a bloke who comes from nowhere, makes it, and then gets clobbered.

To hear the Treorchy Male Choir in full throat is one of the great joys of choral music.

Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.

Occasionally now I feel a wang that goes in my head - once you've got it you've got it. The [illness] was quite severe, leaving me deeply unhappy and frightened.

When anybody tells you something about writing, somebody will tell you something completely different and they will also be right

More people now work in the arts than the steel, coal and car industries combined.

Is it rather stupid and dangerous to take Magna Carta so much for granted, as many of us seem to do, and to think of this attitude as 'very English?'

I'm not a fan of the working class being mocked, including by some of our famous writers - even those who came from it.

Dame Barbara Cartland was an endearing eccentric, and when I interviewed her, she wanted me to listen to her dictating to her secretary one of those romantic novels that she turned out fortnightly.

A risk is a risk because it's avoidable.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

We're going to establish a procedure where people can leave the line, go outside, take care of themselves and the government's gonna pay.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

I don't want to have to start being unselfish again. The great thing about being on your own is you do what you damned well like.

Some books accrete things to themselves like a magnet. The writer risks sterility by subjecting the mysterious power of imagination to the devices of mere comprehension.

Labour is good for a man, bracing up his energies to conquest, And without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself useless.

It's time for the government to scale back, not for people of faith to scale back!

Failing can provide invaluable lessons and making mistakes and experiencing setbacks is part of the DNA of every successful entrepreneur.

The secretary of education does not work for the education establishment. The secretary works for the American people.