The construction industry likes nothing more than a blank canvas onto which they can impose a brand new building, because that way they can make more money.

I like extremely effeminate dogs like terriers or schnauzers. I make an exception for giant schnauzers and big poodles. Basically, I like dogs which can be dyed day-glo colours.

You always have to find something to say about the subject and in seven cases out of ten there is nothing to say.

I'm not against architecture per se, I'm just against bad architecture.

I like looking at the countryside as well as anyone... a little countryside goes a long way, but it's almost like the DNA of a civilisation is in its cities.

I think television is a medium which has the potential to do great things but has been traduced by these... terrible people who rise through the ranks.

I genuinely find it difficult to think of places that I'd never want to see again. It might be because part of my career has been concerned with writing about topography.

The only bright feature of cultural relativism's triumph is that it has become establishment orthodoxy and will thus one day be derided, resisted and overthrown.

I do make myself be interested in places in a way that I don't make myself be interested in people.

When I started writing fiction it always seemed in retrospect (I didn't realise at the time) that it was always caused by environments rather than by incidents and characters.

If you have slightly pathological interest in all the components of places, it forces you to engage with them in a way that perhaps otherwise you wouldn't, and that's the only way I can put it.

Images have enormous power, and images freed from deep within ourselves can change us profoundly.

A body can't live without a heart. And I can't live without you.

Words have finished flirting. Now they are making love.

There's bad apples in whatever way you want to group people - doesn't matter if it's religious, political or social. The big mistake is generalizing.

The vices of some men are magnificent.

I’m infinitely more involved in the reality of the characters and their situation than I am in everyday life.

I hate to repeat lines, to say the same damned thing. I try to rewrite cliches and make what I say sound fresh.

Tis long ere time can mitigate your grief; To wisdom fly, she quickly brings relief.

Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.

The president's need for complete candor and objectivity from advisers calls for great deference from the courts.