It's the only thing that keeps me going these days, travelling. Changes of scene, changes of faces

That's the attraction of the conference circuit: it's a way of converting work into play, combining professionalism with tourism, and all at someone else's expense. Write a paper and see the world! I'm Jane Austen - fly me!

Morris read through the letter. Was it a shade too fulsome? No, that was another law of academic life: it is impossible to be excessive in flattery of one's peers.

Information is the religion of the modern world.

Any language is necessarily a finite system applied with different degrees of creativity to an infinite variety of situations, and most of the words and phrases we use are "prefabricated" in the sense that we don't coin new ones every time we speak.

Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age. They shouldn't have to justify their existence by utilitarian criteria.

I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art.