My favorite thing in the world is a quiz show, 'University Challenge,' so you can see what kind of sad person I am.

The rule is: don’t use commas like a stupid person. I mean it.

I used to help my dad with a stall selling eggs when I was about 12. People were so hard up they would ask for one egg. But mostly no one came by at all. It was very demoralising.

We have a language that is full of ambiguities; we have a way of expressing ourselves that is often complex and elusive, poetic and modulated; all our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the right places. Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking. If it goes, the degree of intellectual impoverishment we face is unimaginable.

Truly good manners are invisible: they ease the way for others, without drawing attention to themselves. It is no accident that the word "punctilious" ("attentive to formality or etiquette") comes from the same original root as punctuation.

Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking.

What I have always liked about Brighton is its impersonality. Since the 18th century, people have come, used the place and gone home again.