Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.

I've never understood all this fuss people make about the dawn. I've seen a few and they're never as good as the photographs, which have the additional advantage of being things you can look at when you're in the right frame of mind, which is usually around lunchtime.

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.

The point is, you see," said Ford, "that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later.

But nowadays everybody's a comedian, even the weather girls and continuity announcers. We laugh at everything. Not intelligently anymore, not with sudden shock, astonishment, or revelation, just relentlessly and meaninglessly. No more rain showers in the desert, just mud and drizzle everywhere, occasionally illuminated by the flash of paparazzi.

It can be very dangerous to see things from somebody else's point of view without the proper training.

Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it.