You can't just say there is a god because the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children.

You don't need a Harvard MBA to know that the bedroom and the boardroom are just two sides of the same ballgame.

You are who you are when nobody's watching.

As I say I don't want to kill myself, I just wouldn't mind dying.

Estate agents: like them or loathe them, you'd be mad not to loathe them.

The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriousity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is.

People who can change and change again are so much more reliable and happier than those who can’t

Love in all eight tones and all five semitones of the word's full octave.

Wine can be a better teacher than ink, and banter is often better than books

Nothing in this world is at it seems. Except, possibly, porridge.

All the big words -virtue, justice, truth, ...- are dwarfed by the greatness of kindness

All I ever wanted to be president of was the American League.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal while blaming our misery on the person who started the fire.

One minute I was a clapped-out, two-guinea, legal-aid lawyer and the next minute I was in parliament.

Acknowledgemen t of what you feel, what you know, what you need is the first step toward healing.

Know when to give up a lost cause. Anyone who needs to be persuaded to be free, doesn't deserve to be.

So many of my books, I don't want to say they have messages, but they have important things to say.

The noisy vacancy of youth, the quiet vacancy of age.

A mission is a place where you ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love.

I've worn a suit and tie for most of my life. And I believe (for me), it makes me more confident navigating the world.

The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.