Richness, the ideas of having plenty of money, is not ... an absolute state. Richness is about the amount of money you have compared to the people you see around you. It is about where you are in relation to others, and where they are in relation to you ... and whether you can have the things you want and other people have.

People would rather earn 60 grand in an area where their neighbours earn 40, than earn 80 in an area where their neighbours earn a hundred.

The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form of control.

It's as if people used the invention of seat belts as an opportunity to take up drunk driving.

It has been a masterful fight-back by the big banks. We the paying public can't do anything much except admit defeat and settle back for the next set of bills. In the meantime, perhaps, we should try and think of a name for the new economic system, which certainly isn't capitalism ... The most accurate term would probably be "bankocracy".

Sometimes, the only way of doing something is to do it.

The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.