The best years are when you know what you're doing.

Yet, like the sea and the gallows, London refuses nobody.

There are certain people who seem doomed to buy certain houses. The house expects them. It waits for them.

The world is a sea in which we all must surely drown.

The 16th-century theatre witnessed the particularly English manifestation of 'the history play.' There can be no doubt that Shakespeare's presentations of 'Henry V' and 'Richard III' have been incalculably more influential than any more sober historical study.

I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my cockney accent.

I strike up conversations all the time and it is very interesting, finding out about things I know nothing about.