Words have always been political, and that means that, in many people's minds, dictionaries are political. Because that's what dictionaries do: they do words.

I think when dictionaries define words, there's a sort of hair-splitting that to most people doesn't make any sense, which is we're not describing what a thing is.

Lexicographers may be nerds who don't like human contact, but we're still people.

Whenever you try and simplify how people speak, it's just hard to squish them into a simple rule. Language doesn't work that way.

We want to emulate the educated class, even if we don't think of educated people as a class these days.

ALL words are made-up: Do you think we find them fully formed on the ocean floor, or mine from them in some remote part of Wales?

Happy people think about how to help others and not how to get from others.

I see more light than dark, but when I encounter dark I seem to get lost in it.

And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.

Turn on, tune up, rock out.

Before you tell me what you teach and preach, show me how you live and give.

I just try to be myself, whatever that is. I don't think about how I'll be remembered. I just want to be consistent over a long period of time. That's what the great players do.

Like a wave on the ocean I will always come right back to you.

I will take a short time out from being in Parliament when the baby is born but I'll still be doing my constituency work - just with another baby in tow.

Untouchability is an error of long standing.

No matter who you vote for, the government stays in power