At home I have big vats of cabbage soup that I make to slim down.

hurting other people is not excusable because you've been hurt yourself.

it's a good idea to wait a few months before joining anything when you arrive at a village. A bookseller friend who retired to nearby Oxfordshire, and was worried he might be bored, got himself on to every village committee in the first six months, and spent the next ten years extricating himself.

Go to lots of interviews, at least one a month even when you don't need a job, to keep in training for when you do.

Meetings ... are rather like cocktail parties. You don't want to go, but you're cross not to be asked.

Without doubt, keep a diary. From the day you're born, keep a diary, because we all forget things so quickly.

There is something infinitely dingy about the word workshop. Pray that England doesn't become a nation of workshopkeepers.