If it's a romantic holiday the only thing I need is my wife. We love quiet and calm places where we can't be disturbed. Neither of us likes being in busy places we would much rather stay in our hotel room and enjoy each other's company.

Middle age is when a guy keeps turning off lights for economical rather than romantic reasons.

I work on words quite separately to music. They're both ongoing and I don't ever feel like I'm working in a cycle in that respect because it's every day anyway no matter what I'm doing. Then I get to a point when I've collected together enough words that seem like they want to be songs rather than poems or sometimes not.

The respect for human rights is nowadays not so much a matter of having international standards but rather questions of compliance with those standards.

I respect people who feel things passionately. I do. But when someone is a judge that is not what they should bring to the bench. It is not really passion except in rare instances that serves the bench well. It is rather an ability to understand the law and follow it.

Never respect men merely for their riches but rather for their philanthropy we do not value the sun for its height but for its use.

Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk rather like the respect of simple races for the insane... There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions.

It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.

In Europe art has to a large degree taken the place of religion. In America it seems rather to be science.

I should like to repeat what I stated recently in the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia: It won't be the religion but rather the world-view of some of its followers that shall be made current.