The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare no matter what happens to the world that's not equity it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

Don't fear anything for your letters they are burnt one by one and I hope you do the same with mine.

I don't think that fundamentalism has anything to do with Jesus Christ. They call themselves Christians but if that's Christian count me out. Fundamentalism is built on fear and greed. They're telling you to give them your money otherwise you're going to hell.

I had a fear of becoming anything a fear of becoming a specialist. I might have become a doctor but if you become a doctor that's your specialty in life and you are defined by it. One of the attractions of being a writer is that you're never a specialist. Your field is entirely open your field is the entire human condition.

China in the future is going to have even more nuclear capability than it has had in the past. I don't believe that they have anything to fear from the United States and I frankly don't believe they do fear the United States.

But with the right kind of coaching and determination you can accomplish anything and the biggest accomplishment that I feel I got from the film was overcoming that fear.

More than fantasy or even science fiction Ray Bradbury wrote horror and like so many great horror writers he was himself utterly without fear of anything. He wasn't afraid of looking uncool - he wasn't scared to openly love innocence or to be optimistic or to write sentimentally when he felt that way.

I always say three things make a writer: inspiration obviously perspiration doing the work. But the third is desperation. I'm not really fit for anything else or to have a real job. That fear drives me. The pressure has always been self inflicted.

Being a parent is not for the faint of heart. I may joke about knowing fear but the fact is the first time I ever knew real fear was the day Charlotte my first child was born. Suddenly there is someone in the world you care about more than anything.

You can ask me pretty much anything. There'll be things I'll go 'That feels a little too personal.' But most things I don't have a fear of being asked about.