“To play Trivial Pursuit with a life like mine could be said to be a form of homeopathy.”

I can walk. It’s just that I’m so rich I don’t need to.

[talking about the Holocaust] ‘But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained.

But most men regard their life as a poem that women threaten.

Above literature?’ said the Queen. ‘Who is above literature? You might as well say one was above humanity.

One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.

One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human.

Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.

The masters had no idea what was expected of you in the scholarship exam, so you just had to busk it really.

Knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.

Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.

It was the kind of library he had only read about in books.

A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot.

In the way of circumstances and background to transcend I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint.

Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.

I’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control.

Our perspective on the past alters. Looking back, immediately in front of us is dead ground.

But I always believed that I could be something special. I just had to prove it to myself.

The poor folk gladly came to me, for I did them no unkindness, but helped them as much as I could.

A dog, for me, it’s not just getting a dog. I couldn’t leave him at home.

Each one of us could make the difference.

When you walk the track and you see a corner and realise you were going round it at 160mph, you wonder who could be so stupid to take a corner at that speed. But in the car, you don’t even think about that.

I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

Do you think the Voice would come to me? I would that every one could hear the Voice as I hear it.