I knew the facts of death before I knew the facts of life. There never was a time when I didn't see the skull beneath the skin.

[My father and his friends] believed in equality for women without troubling to acquire the basic domestic skills which would have made that equality possible.

The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.

Of all the things that human beings did together, the sexual act was the one with the most various of reasons.

Books of quotations ... afford me one of the most undemanding but satisfying forms of reading pleasure.

Creativity doesn't flourish in an atmosphere of despotism, coercion and fear.

A politician is required to listen to humbug, talk humbug, condone humbug. The most we can hope for is that we don't actually believe it.