There will be a quick rash of hairy American filth, but it shouldn't threaten the existence of decent, serious British filth.

Royalty is the gold filling in a mouthful of decay

Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.

Writers don't need love; all they require is money.

Go on - but don't think you can kill my confidence. I've had experts doing it for years.

I must be the luckiest man in the world. Not only am I bisexual, I am also Welsh.

They spend their time looking forward to the past.

A refined sort of butcher, a woman is.

We all of us waited for him to die. The family sent him a check every month, and hoped he'd get on with it quietly, without too much vulgar fuss.

Don't be afraid of being emotional. You won't die of it.

Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.

How easy it is for us to demonise from a distance. But when we stand face to face with our supposed enemy, it is hard to hate.

A man travels fastest who travels alone.

Bad attitudes will ruin your team.

Before giving advice we must have secured its acceptance, or, rather, have made it desired.

Why do people feel guilty about TV? What is wrong with it? Just this: it shuts out all the wonderful things of which the mind is capable, leaving it drugged in a state of thoughtless stupor.

Stars will blossom in the darkness, Violets bloom beneath the snow.

Over a four-month period, I sat down and wrote every day. And then there was a novel, and all of a sudden, there were agents and offers.

Every golden age is as much a matter of disregard as of felicity.

What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party.

The idea that I'm going to have to sit down to write some fiction where I'm going to have to think of a plot would really scare me, because it would come out a mess.