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

If we looked inside ourselves and remembered how insignificant we are, just for a couple of minutes a day, respect for other people would be an automatic result.

Texting is a supremely secretive medium of communication - it's like passing a note - and this means we should be very careful what we use it for.

One of the things that all authors of fiction must learn to judge is whether - and in what detail - to describe the face of a character.

Sticklers never read a book without a pencil at hand, to correct the typographical errors. In short, we are unattractive know-all obsessives who get things out of proportion and are in continual peril of being disowned by our exasperated families.

I am not against marriage. I lived with someone for 11 years. But we weren't in love, and I thought that was quite important.

For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word “Book’s” with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.