- Giftedness is not a measure of wealth - it is a measure of mind - and great minds may emerge in the most unpromising of circumstances. (August 7, 2007)
- Jade Goody is worthy because she is known, but she is not known because she is worthy. (March 12, 2009)
- An examination is all about testing you on someone else's thoughts. Many children become expert on other people's thoughts - but have none of their own. In some way, focusing too much on what other people have thought and written in books seems to inhibit the development of the ability to have your own.
- The role of a family, is to make a world that has never been and never will be again, to sustain people who have never been and never will be again. A family is a pocket universe, and no less important than the universe itself, for being smaller.
- "Education" might as well be spelt "e-r-a-d-i-c-a-t-i-o-n", where creativity is concerned.
- Whenever a teacher takes a stand against plagiarism, the entire school should stand behind him or her.
- I have thought of a good quote about modesty, but I think I will keep it to myself.
- A snub from a snob is better than any accolade. [Reflecting on his chance encounter with Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, in the mid 1990s on June 17th 2010.]
- A genius can learn what everyone else learns, but then see in it what no-one else saw. [December 14, 2006]
- A genius is usually highly intelligent - but the highly intelligent are usually not geniuses. [December 14, 2006.]
- The self is an irreplaceable, one-off, chance creation that shall never be again. The writer should, therefore, do their best to capture that self, before it is lost to death, time and memory. (19th July 2010)
- A writer who consciously imitates another no more resembles a creator, than does a typical worshipper the founder of their religion. (19th July 2010)
- When the trivial is allowed a voice, it tends to crowd out matters of more substance. [December 29, 2008]
- The best sales pitch of all is a good character. (February 9th, 2010)
- There is nothing more obscene than cake, in a world of widespread hunger. [1st September 2010]
- There is no such thing as a natural disaster, only human inaction, before it. [17th August 2010, remarking on the fact that a hurricane for New Orleans was widely predicted, but not acted upon, before Katrina.]
- When others urge us to silence, is that not precisely when we should speak out loudest? (20th September 2010)
- A genius is one who can show us not so much how to think, but what we have been thinking wrongly. (20th September 2010).
- Geniuses dream whilst they are awake. Thus it is that they are more asleep than everyone else. (21st September 2010).
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