Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.

Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.

The most watched programme on the BBC after the news is probably 'Doctor Who.' What has happened is that science fiction has been subsumed into modern literature. There are grandparents out there who speak Klingon who are quite capable of holding down a job. No one would think twice now about a parallel universe.

In science read by preference the newest works in literature the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.

Science and literature are not two things but two sides of one thing.

It has become almost a cliche to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics.

There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society similar to a London society a highbrow literature celebrity society.

Well there's just some universal truths in a way that I've just observed to be true. You read Voltaire. You read modern literature. Anywhere you go there's these observations about romantic love and what it does people and these rotten feelings that rarely are people meaning to do that to each other.

Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature.

I have quite a few different Bibles. Having rejected my parents' religion I still think the King James Bible is the most important work of literature in English. None of us can help being influenced by it.