To be a writer was always my greatest aim. I remember writing a play about Guy Fawkes when I was 10. I suppose it's significant, at least to me, that….

I have always believed that the material world is governed by nonmaterial sources, so that in that sense 'English Music' is an exercise in the spirit….

London' is a gallery of sensation of impressions. It is a history of London in a thematic rather than a chronological sense with chapters of the hist….

You don't have to be brought up in a grand house to have a sense of the past, and I truly believe that there are certain people to whom or through wh….

In so far as I have any beliefs, I suppose I'm like that old Peggy Lee song, 'Is That All There Is?' I want to believe there's something else going o….

I have liv'd long enough for others, like the Dog in the Wheel, and it is now the Season to begin for myself: I cannot change that Thing call'd Time,….

There are two types of people, you see. One type keep their heads straight, and look around as they walk. The others look up - at the tops of houses,….

I don't find myself interesting as a person and the details I find boring, quite frankly. You could sum it up in a few words or sentences really: cam….

And when I was young, did I ever tell you, I always wanted to get inside a book and never come out again? I loved reading so much I wanted to be a pa….

In London, I've always lived within 10 miles of where I was born. You see, there is something called a spirit of place, and my place happens to be Lo….

Health, money. That's what people worried about in the 14th century as much as today. I find it so much more interesting than the supposed activities….

I wanted to be a poet when I was 20; I had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history, but those three elements in m….

It sometimes seems to me that the whole course of English history was one of accident, confusion, chance and unintended consequences - there's no rea….

The endless chatter of this journey had wearied me..