A celebrity is well known for being well known. I'm relatively well known - but for what I've written and said, or so I fondly imagine.

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

I think the cultural task is to separate our impulses and needs and desires from the supernatural and, above all, from the superstitious.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? To the ones that arise from urgent material needs.

We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way

Anyone who can look me in the eye and say they prefer the story of Moses or Jesus or Mohammed to the life of Socrates is intellectually defective.

Jesus, it is true, shows no personal interest in gain, but he does speak of treasure in heaven and even of mansions as an inducement to follow him. Is it not further true that all religions down the ages have shown a keen interest in the amassment of material goods in the real world?