I don't believe necessarily the past is in the past. It's eternal, it's all around us.

There is no humiliation worse than the consciousness of a wasted life. It stains the spirit, forestalls hope, and destroys any motive for action or change.

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 don't in any sense think of myself as a celebrity, which of course I'm not.

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

Under the force of the imagination, nature itself is changed.

London goes beyond any boundary or convention.It contains every wish or word ever spoken, every action or gesture ever made, every harsh or noble statement ever expressed. It is illimitable. It is Infinite London.