It is true that in America I've become a national hero, but really I was a hopeless case, that was all.

I went out into the world when I was about 22. I wrote books and I illustrated books and did book covers, and I taught tap-dancing, and I was a model in the art school. I had no ability for any of those things, but what else could I do?

Well, it has done terrifying things. Religious ideas are inflammatory in a way that I find difficult to understand. There are very few wars over the theory of relativity. Very few heated arguments, for that matter. Whereas, in Northern Ireland, they are killing one another over religion.

I am told that you regret not what you did but what you didn't do; and so that's why I do everything, so as not to have any regrets.

To live in the past is to miss today's opportunities and tomorrow's blessings.

The Americans, of course, are quite dotty with hospitality.

When I was young, I wanted to find the Great Dark Man. When I said that I realise now that people thought that by 'dark' I meant black, and that by 'great' I meant big. Whereas I only meant a strong, mysterious person; someone who would 'take me away from all this.'