I loved Alien and I loved Carrie and I loved The Exorcist - those were big movies for me. They were just brilliantly done and unusual and they all took horror to some new place.

Sydney in general is eclectic. You can be on that brilliant blue ocean walk in the morning and then within 20 minutes you can be in a completely vast suburban sprawl or an Italian or Asian suburb and it's that mix of people it's that melting pot of people that give it its vital personality.

Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold clear night made brilliant by a glorious star the smell of incense shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby the incarnation of perfect love.

Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.

I suppose if I'd got a brilliant first and done research I might still be a don today but I hope not. People become dons because they are incapable of doing anything else in life.

I exercise about 40 minutes a day and I'll run one day and do circuit training the next day. I live in an area where there are brilliant hills and mountains so I get a good hill run with my dog. At home I'll do the circuit training with old weights along with pull-ups in the trees and that sort of stuff.

With copious evidence ranging from Plato's haughtiness to Beethoven's tirades we may conclude that the most brilliant people of history tend to be a prickly lot.

Walking is magic. Can't recommend it highly enough. I read that Plato and Aristotle did much of their brilliant thinking together while ambulating. The movement the meditation the health of the blood pumping and the rhythm of footsteps...this is a primal way to connect with one's deeper self.

Fame is indeed beautiful and benign and gentle and satisfying but happiness is something at once tender and brilliant beyond all things.

Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment.