What other developed democracy has such a ridiculous and squalid history of intolerance? From the imprisonment and roasting of heretics, witches and poachers, to the censorship of literature, art and television: from St Alban through Wilde, Joyce and Lawrence I think we can point with pride to as grim a catalogue of intemperate, bigoted repression as any nation on earth.

I have Van Gogh's ear for music

They are just 100 per cent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not 100 per cent human, that we're always letting ourselves down. We're constantly striving towards something, to some fulfilment.

I like people who are as unlike me as possible, which is not an expression of self disgust or self hatred, but it's just that you know you obviously particularly admire things that you recognize yourself as not having.

You don't need a Harvard MBA to know that the bedroom and the boardroom are just two sides of the same ballgame.

You can't reason yourself back into cheerfulness any more than you can reason yourself into an extra six inches in height.

Oh, it takes a lot for me to walk out of a film.