Cloisters, ancient libraries ... I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone.

If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.

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

I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.

The thing I think about is that once you've done it, you then start to think about what you're going to do next. It's much easier to follow something that's not been as successful as this.

There's very little in the substance of [THE LADY IN THE VAN] which is not fact though some adjustments have had to be made. Over the years Miss Shepherd was visited by a succession of social workers so the character in the play is a composite figure. . . . A composite too are the neighbours, Pauline and Rufus, though I have made Rufus a publisher in remembrance of my neighbour, the late Colin Haycraft, the proprietor of Duckworth's.

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