Stephen Fry

Better sexy and racy Than sexist and racist

Part of life is learning what to be ashamed of and what to be proud of.

We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I'm going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.

There is simply no limit to the tyrannical snobbery that otherwise decent people can descend into when it comes to music.

In a dung heap, even a plastic bead can gleam like a sapphire.

Cheat? Good heavens, this is an amateur cricket match amongst leading prep schools, I'm an Englishman and a schoolmaster supposedly setting an example to his young charges. We are playing the most artistic and beautiful game ever devised. Of course I'll cunting well cheat. Now, give me my robe and put on my crown. I have immortal longings in me.

I will defend the absolute value of Mozart over Miley Cyrus, of course I will, but we should be wary of false dichotomies. You do not have to choose between one or the other. You can have both. The human cultural jungle should be as varied and plural as the Amazonian rainforest. We are all richer for biodiversity. We may decide that a puma is worth more to us than a caterpillar, but surely we can agree that the habitat is all the better for being able to sustain each.

To me, reason is as spiritual as anything else, the beauty of reason seems to me indelible and ineffable and numinous... the spirit is after all the same word we use to describe... essence

I like to wake up each morning and not know what I think, that I may reinvent myself in some way.

A month's salary, deep regret, the telephone number of some foul rehab clinic and my lance was free.

We don't stop talking about how the world might be better just because we have no chance of making it to Prime Minister. We are all politicians. We are all artists. In an open society everything the mind and hands can achieve is our birthright. It is up to us to claim it.

I think my view is that whenever you project into the future you're never likely to be accurate in the details, or the paraphernalia and style. It's in the spirit of it.

Many people would no more think of entering journalism than the sewage business - which at least does us all some good.

Christmas to a child is the first terrible proof that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.

I like to think of myself at home in the armchair, writing, smoking and occasionally wandering down the shop.

When you've seen a nude infant doing a backward somersault you know why clothing exists.

Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden at least once. It is an insult to creation not to experience it fully. Temperance is wickedness.

The point about manic depression or bipolar disorder, as it's now more commonly called, is that it's about mood swings. So, you have an elevated mood. When people think of manic depression, they only hear the word depression. They think one's a depressive. The point is, one's a manic-depressive.