I think childhood is to everyone a lost land.

The strangest thing that human speech and human writing can do is create a metaphor. That is an amazing leap, is it not?

Politics is still crucially important. Our choices are vital, and we've got to make them and not just say, 'Oh they're all the same.' They are all the same in certain ways, alas - a political animal is such an animal.

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.

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

The nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous. [...] If you see the present tense, boy do you see it! And boy can you celebrate it.

Television's Mr. Filth: that's me.