I met my wife Anne who was a sociology student and her influence together with activities associated with the student movement of the time opened up my interests amongst other things into the theatre art music politics and philosophy.

I think cinema movies and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.

So I think democracy in the long-term in our countries will survive if it comes to be associated with leadership will not survive if democracy plus media brings to us more and more followship rather than leadership.

I think there was a revolution in poetry associated chiefly with Eliot and Pound but maybe it is of the nature of revolutions or of the nature of history that their innovations should later come to look trivial or indistinguishable from technical tricks.

It is in Rousseau's writing above all that history begins to turn from upper-class honour to middle-class humanitarianism. Pity sympathy and compassion lie at the centre of his moral vision. Values associated with the feminine begin to infiltrate social existence as a whole rather than being confined to the domestic sphere.

In human history the desire for revenge and the desire for loot have often been closely associated.

I suspect the psychological pressure associated with that crisis caused the first mental blackout I had ever suffered. It contributed to a deterioration in my health that later required the insertion of a heart pacemaker.

There are a range of associated impacts related to increasing temperatures which affect both evaporation rates and river systems which are already over stressed and these will hit farming communities and the health of crop lands.

The most common objection that I hear to walking as exercise is that it's too easy that only sweaty strenuous activity offers real benefits. But there is abundant evidence that regular brisk walking is associated with better health including lower blood pressure better moods and improved cholesterol ratios.

Obama is capable - as evidenced by his first-term success with health care reform. But mandate-building requires humility a trait not easily associated with him.