I believe that poetry is a primal impulse within us all.

It is a little theory of mine that has much exercised my mind lately, that most of the problems of this silly and delightful world derive from our apologising for those things which we ought not to apologise for, and failing to apologise for those things for which apology is necessary.

Music takes me to places of illimitable sensual and insensate joy, accessing points of ecstasy that no angelic lover could ever locate, or plunging me into gibbering weeping hells of pain that no torturer could ever devise".

My first words, as I was being born [...] I looked up at my mother and said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.

Coming out as gay was an easy enough matter for me, since I worked in a profession where being gay had a long history of being accepted.

there is no reason why anyone should understand how it works… and of course no reason why anyone should care … unless you are curious, in which case I love you, for curiosity about the world and all its corners is a beautiful thing.

But happiness is no respecter of persons.