The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it.

My dear young fellow,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, 'there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet.

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.

Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

I shot down some German planes and I got shot down myself, crashing in a burst of flames and crawling out, getting rescued by brave soldiers.

I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt.

Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!

Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you.

This was the start of a period that blurs as I try to recall it. Incidents seem to cascade and merge. Events become feelings, fellings become events. Head and heart are contrary historians.

I am a storyteller, not a historian, and it's my ambition to create something compelling - something unputdownable and riveting - that chimes with the real history but is, in fact, fiction.

The self may be extinguished, but there are many selves and the Will creates them.

It is very clear that one way to challenge insults is to submit to them.

Breathe in, breathe out, move on.

We learn from every natural disaster. Whether it's a fire or a flood, we learn something from it so we can respond to the next one better.

Sometimes it's tough because I've got to sleep 15 hours to sing the way I want to. It's not easy because my vocal chords are different than most people's.

Decide that no matter what is happening around you, the sun will always be shining in your world.

In private life I never knew anyone interfere with other people's disputes but he heartily repented of it.

Tell the truth once and for all and shut up forever.