If I were to believe in a god l would believe in gods. I think monotheism is the really ghastly thing. That is the absolutely staggering to me misapprehension.

A cut glass English accent can fool unsuspecting Americans into detecting a brilliance that isn't there

If there were a God he would want us to be better spirited than to take his word for everything.

I have Van Gogh's ear for music

How can I tell you what I think until I've heard what I'm going to say?

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.

I was born Mary Patterson, but then I married and naturally took my husband's name, so now I'm Neil Patterson.