I haven't had a single moment of terror since they told me [I was dying]. My only regret is to die four pages too soon. If I can finish, then I'm quite happy to go.

I have been aware, from the age of 6, that I had talent.

Religion, you can't a handle on it, you just have to know or not know-people either believe or they don't believe.

Words themselves - the very material of our discourse increasingly take on masks or disguises

I did not fully understand the dread term 'terminal illness' until I saw Heathrow for myself.

Children can write poetry and then, unless they're poets, they stop when reach puberty.

The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they've been in.