Growing up, I learnt to think, 'Let's make it a big night tonight, as you never know what's going to happen next.' So now I have enough, I take too much; when I get the chance to have a fine dinner, I will. And it's had an effect on my health.

Growing up, I lived in a house without art: no picture books on the shelves, no visits to museums, no posters on the bedroom wall.

We do not need to be heroes to save the world; all we need is humility, a critical view of the commercial and political interests of those who would mislead us into wrongdoing, and a sense of wonder.

In time, we will have to recognise that it is not 'nature' that we need to protect, but ourselves, and we can only do this by abandoning the old, grandiose, profit-seeking schemes so beloved of our masters and learning to till the soil, live to scale, and live within our means.

In a free country, government is a dull and onerous responsibility. It is a parent-teacher conference.

The answer, of course, in the mouth of a Christian teacher is that in Christianity alone is there both present joy and future hope.

About me - I used to want to be a P.E. teacher, and kind of still do.

Reading is a free practice. I think the readers are free to begin by the books where they want to. They don't have to be led in their reading.