I think they've got 250 languages in Nigeria, and so English is a sort of lingua franca between the 250 languages.

And I've been wearing specs since I was three.

I have a confession to make. The love affair of my life has been with the Greek language. I have now reached the age when it has occurred to me that I may have read some books for the last time. I suddenly thought that there are books I cannot bear not to read again before I die. One that stands out a mile is Homer's Iliad.

Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply. We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?

I also know Patrick White in Australia, both personally and as a writer, and Salman Rushdie in India.

Are we savages or what?

Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?