top of page
Quotes by British Authors

"Being in touch with the natural world is crucial."

"Usually, in the studio, on this sort of thing... you just go out and have a play over it, and see what comes, and it's usually - mostly - the first take that's the best one, and you find yourself repeating yourself thereafter."

"I don't believe your soul mate has to share your politics."

"Having no need to judge, control, react, so forgiveness does not even arise."

"After Mary Queen of Scots, I turned to the farthest subject possible: Cromwell."

"If you're not balanced, your mind's not balanced... my fuse went."

"There is the danger of over preparation, of loss of spontaneity; over rehearsal is the most terrible thing you can imagine. We do have a very close association between costume and set designer, though. And the cameraman is very important, of course."

"How do I know pornography depraves and corrupts? It depraves and corrupts me."

"There's merit in being different, inspiration in being individual, courage in being unique, and freedom in being yourself."

"It seems difficult, sometimes, to believe that there was a time when sentiments now become habitual, sentiments that imply not only the original imperative of conduct, but the original metaphysic of living, were by no means altogether habitual."

"No, I've never thought that I was gay. And that's not something you think. It's something you know."

"My earliest professional musical experiences were really as a session player, and every day was an adventure. Three sessions a day, every day, and you never knew who you would be working with until you arrived at the studio."

"The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I'm not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage."

"Life isn't black and white. It's a million gray areas, don't you find?"

"This sounds horribly pretentious, but I like to think that if music hadn't existed, I could have invented it."

"Many think that the mark of a great champion is the nature and margin of their victories and the peaks they scale and reach. That's only part of it. The mark of the greatest of champions is how they react and respond to defeat. That is when they become enshrined in our hearts and minds " as they rise again and into the immortal pages of history."

"I have no intention of discussing my private life with anyone."

"Don't eat the bread unless you want to leave bread crumbs."

"To lose a problem, do not oppose, let go of any need to control, perhaps it's all an illusion we project, more like a game we play than real?"

"To write simply is as difficult as to be good."

"I wanted to be successful, not famous."

"The richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time."

"Three or four stones in one firing will all react differently. I try to achieve a balance between those that haven't progressed enough and those about to go too far."

"There are few things more pleasing than the contemplation of order and useful arrangement."

"But the answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing that anyway. However you intellectualise it, you still just live."

"I see myself as a comic but the acting helps sell tickets for gigs."

"William James used to preach the 'will to believe.' For my part, I should wish to preach the 'will to doubt' ... what is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite."

"If you got a good imagination, a lot of confidence and you kind of know what you are saying, then you might be able to do it. I know a lot of colorful characters at home that would make great actors."

"Bridget Jones is part of literary lore now and actually to be a part of it is enormously flattering."

"All of creation expands and evolves."

"Do not fear the ghosts in this house; theyare the least of your worries.Personally I find the noises they make reassuring,The creaks and footsteps in the night,their little tricks of hiding things,or moving them, I findendearing, not upsettling. It makes the placefeel so much more like a home.Inhabited."

"All the best stories are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."

"I used to say of Napoleon that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men."

"Ice shelves in general have episodic carvings and there can be large icebergs breaking off - I'm talking 100km or 200km long - every 10 or 20 or 50 years."

"War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact."

"Your choices can only be limited by your mind."

"You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about."
bottom of page
