The internet was supposed to liberate knowledge, but in fact it buried it, first under a vast sewer of ignorance, laziness, bigotry, superstition and filth and then beneath the cloak of political surveillance. Now...cyberspace exists exclusively to promote commerce, gossip and pornography. And of course to hunt down sedition. Only paper is safe. Books are the key. A book cannot be accessed from afar, you have to hold it, you have to read it.

You think I look like a teletubby?

Leaders should never, ever try to look cool - that's for dictators

My parents were secular. I am an atheist.

I see dull people as projects ... to be reformed

No collection of people who are all waiting for the same thing are capable of holding a natural conversation. Even if the thing they are waiting for is only a taxi.

I think trying to be cool is the worst possible ambition - and I have never suffered from it.