While there is a great value in things that are old, it seems that the overwhelming challenge in Britain in the late 20th century is to make every effort to see value in the contemporary and in the future.

If you were born in Britain after World War II, you see a continuous atmosphere of decline, moral and economic and political.

As the twentieth century ends, commerce and culture are coming closer together. The distinction between life and art has been eroded by fifty years of enhanced communications, ever-improving reproduction technologies and increasing wealth.

It is sometimes easier to have furniture made than to find things.

My wife and I both love cooking - I am an advanced male - so we argue about who gets to rustle up dinner.

I have no particular interest in antiquities or antiques, but I like things to meet a certain aesthetic.

I have put [the word] "discoveries" in inverted commas because scientific results, perhaps as much at least as artistic achievements, are a product of contemporary taste, driven by momentary appetites rather than eternal verities.