"Hey." Tod squeezed my hand to draw me out of my thoughts. "I think death looks good on you."

“I think England has been in the long-term damaged by Britishness.”

Source : "Is Britishness a generous thing, or has it damaged England?". "Today" with Jim Naughtie, www.opendemocracy.net. January 17, 2012.

“It's very difficult to speak to a large group of people these days and not offend someone. I know people walk around with their feelings on their shoulders waiting for you to say something - ahh - did you hear that? And they can't hear anything else you say. The PC police are out in force at all times.”

“We are primitive men; we taboo what we desire and need. How did the denying of love come to be associated with the idea of morality.”

“We believe that every relationship is unique unto itself, and thus even an attempt to think in types and forms is not going to express the essential truths of what happens when we love people.”

“There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.”

“I got knocked down. Anybody could be knocked down, anybody can be knocked out, but it's not what happened, but what happens next.”

“I have wisdom of a 60-year-old. Also it takes a lot for me to respect a person, so when a person has a body of work behind him, it draws my respect.”

“The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.”

Source : The Independent on Sunday, June 24, 1990.