Beauty doesn't have to be about anything. What's a vase about? What's a sunset or a flower about? What, for that matter, is Mozart's Twenty-third Piano Concerto about?

I am terribly proud of-I was born in Cambridge in 1952 and my initials are DNA!

He inched his way up the corridor as if he would rather be yarding his way down it, which was true.

This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time.

If God allows proof that he exists he robs people of faith and without faith what is God? Nothing.

He felt a spasm of excitement because he knew instinctively who it was, or at least knew who it was he wanted it to be, and once you know what it is you want to be true, instinct is a very useful device for enabling you to know that it is.

A mobile phone needs a manual in the way that a teacup doesn't