We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand.

The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.

Unless we remember we cannot understand.

The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.

Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things.

Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake.

To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.

The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.

How can I know what I think till I see what I say?

The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

I always thought of words as art supplies.

Sometimes the best lighting of all is a power failure.

I like doing radio because it's so intimate. The moment people hear your voice, you're inside there heads, not only that, you're in there laying eggs.

Nature is one great big wood-chipper. Sooner or later, everything shoots out the other end in a spray of blood, bones and hair.

I miss the silliness of the Nineties. What would society be like if 9/11 never happened? If that silliness was extended forever?

If our subconscious was attractive, we wouldn't have to bury it down deep within us.

Most of us have only two or three genuinely interesting moments in our lives; the rest is filler.

Unhappiness is something we are never taught about; we are taught to expect happiness, but never a Plan B to use to use when the happiness doesn't arrive.

Art was always my main focus; I fell into writing by accident in the 1980s, writing magazine articles to pay for my studio. I have to put myself into the position of writing; sometimes it doesn't work, and sometimes it works great.

Time perception is very much about how you sequence your activities, how many activities you layer overtop of others, and the types of gaps, if any, you leave in between activities.