"I was quite into biology and chemistry at school, and I did well in my maths GCSE – I really liked it and got an A – so I quite fancied a career in forensics or something like that. But I bet if you put a maths exam paper in front of me now I wouldn’t have a clue."

“The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.”

“We shall creep out quietly into the butler's pantry--" cried the Mole. "--with out pistols and swords and sticks--" shouted ther Rat. "--and rush in upon them," said Badger. "--and whack 'em, and whack 'em, and whack 'em!" cried the Toad in ecstasy, running round and round the room, and jupming over the chairs.”

“You get a lot of narrative energy from people who make really big mistakes, who act against their best interests, who do things that turn out to have serious consequences. It's very hard make a story out of people doing the right thing over and over again.”

“The candid incline to surmise of late that the Christian faith proves false.”

“I'm a great believer in the Arsene Wenger school of management - which is, you don't worry about the opposition, you just get your own act together”

Source : "We nearly threw it away. We must be more radical". Interview with Patrick Wintour, www.theguardian.com. December 10, 2006.

“Yes and, you know, I can't use the nice words anymore because I used to chicken out by using them. I used to call myself plus size, used to call myself chubby. I used to call myself overweight.”

“The West has funded the war against itself by buying Arab oil. It is as simple and as tragic as that.”

Source : Phyllis Chesler (2013). “An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir”, p.188, Macmillan

“I have been judged to be a pessimist but what abyss of ignorance and low egoism is not hidden in one who thinks that Man is the god of himself and that his future can only be triumphant?”