I remember nothing of this, no ambulance rides, nothing. Nothing between switching out the bedside lamp and the sudden indignity of rebirth: the slaps, the brightness, the tubing, the speed, the urgent insistence that I be choked back into breathing life. I have felt so sorry for babies ever since.
Stephen FryWe hold on STEVE's still smiling face as MICHAEL passes by. STEVE's eyes follow MICHAEL out of the room and then the smile disappears. It is replaced by a look of hunger and desolation.
Stephen FryIt's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathingโthey are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.
Stephen FryI can understand the Greek idea that there are these these principles of lightening or of war or of wisdom and to embody them, to personify them into a Athena or Aries or whichever god you want makes enormous sense.
Stephen FryI flicked my eyes over to Steve again and saw him straighten. He would need a diversion just to start. โExplanations?โ I bellowed. โExplanations? Thereโs your explanationโฆthere!โ I stabbed a finger dramatically towards the far corner of the room. Pathetic, really. I mean, talk about the oldest trick in the book. But itโs a good book, and the trick would have been cut from subsequent editions if it didnโt sometimes work.
Stephen Fry