poverty denotes a lack of necessities and simplicity a lack of needs.

On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as presents and a few days later I decided to cycle to India.

hatred, however apparently justifiable, excusable or inevitable, always damages the hater.

Buying a bicycle is a momentous event, akin to marriage: you are acquiring a partner.

Sunnis consider Shias a pack of unwholesome fanatics and Shias consider Sunnis a gang of lukewarm no-goods - there's nothing like religion for spreading brotherly love!

one of the advantages of cycling is that it automatically prevents a journey from becoming an Expedition.

... strong bonds are forged in high emotional temperatures.

... I know a number of Western children who would benefit greatly if only someone were primitive enough to inhibit the development of their personalities.

The Irish have a flair for wringing from death the last drop of emotion and they do not quite understand those who react otherwise.

Is this something else our age does - on the one hand make communication easier than ever before, while on the other hand widening the gulf between those who are 'developed' and those who are not?

Undoubtedly the Afghans must be, by our standards, the best-looking people in the world. They have everything; height, proportions, carriage, features and complexion.

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone

Hate is the consequence of fear we fear something before we hate it a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise.

We cannot overcome anger and hatred simply by suppressing them. We need to actively cultivate the antidotes: patience and tolerance.

I think everything should be in verse. 'The New York Times' should be in verse.

Keep going; never stop; sit tight; Read something luminous at night.

To her, the name of father was another name for love.

A secret is too little for one, enough for two, and too much for three.

It had to go in, but it didn't.

Over the long haul I'd say that most directors I've worked with have been pretty sensitive to the quality of the interpreted scenes.

So he didn't have to prove how he felt about me. Like so much else, I should just know.