On the morning, Daddy and I get up at six o'clock because Christmas trees must be bought in the dark. We walk to the other end of town, as the big harbour is just the right setting for buying a Christmas tree. We spend hours choosing, looking at every branch suspiciously. It's always cold.

I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think?

All men are chums who will never leave each other in the lurch. A chum doesn't forgive, he just forgets - women forgive everything but never forget. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.

One makes a trip by day, but by night, one sets out on a journey.

I mean, I was born the day war broke out, but I don't remember all the bombs though they did actually break up Liverpool, you know. I remember when I was a little older, there was big gaps in all the streets where houses used to be. We used to play over them.

The Army I grew up in was focused on high-intensity conflict against a peer competitor called the Soviet Union.

Up until the First World War, when people turned anti-German, Germany had been described by American political scientists as the model of democracy.

I believe if religion brings you to a sense of peace, that's beautiful. But I also believe if religion's not your thing, that's fine, too, just so long as you're a good person and you find that one thing that leads you to peace and teaches you to have harmony with yourself and other people around you.