When anyone starts out to do something creative - especially if it seems a little unusual - they seek approval, often from those least inclined to give it. But a creative life cannot be sustained by approval, any more than it can be destroyed by criticism - you learn this as you go on.

As the render is to the building, and the blueprint to the machine, so sport is to social existence.

Once the working classes were in chains, now they're in chain restaurants.

If you believe something, you can have a morality that means something as well. You can feel recognized as an individual within the universe; it can give meaning to who you are.

I think it's a misreading of Dostoevsky to think of him as a programmatic theist. He's actually much closer to someone like William James. He's actually a pragmatist.

Whenever I produce my best work, it's always because I've spent time being idle. Something always emerges after nothing.

Why is Mr Universe always from Earth?