"I'm a bit of a deconstructionist myself. It's kind of exciting – the last intellectual thrill left. Like sawing throu…"

"Four times, under our educational rules, the human pack is shuffled and cut – at eleven-plus, sixteen-plus, eighteen-…"

"Looking around at the faces of his colleagues in the Senior Common Room he felt reassured: not a Lineament of Gratifi…"

"I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art."

"Language is the net that holds thought trapped within a particular culture. But if one could only strike the ball wit…"

"That's the attraction of the conference circuit: it's a way of converting work into play, combining professionalism w…"

""Ich respektiere einen Mann, der ein Angebot erkennt. Es ist eine aussterbende Kunst."- Kleine Welt: eine akademische…"

"Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time. The chasm b…"

"I never really had any aspirations to be an actor when I was young. I wanted to play the piano in a bar, to be the ol…"

"If I do decide one day to stop acting, I just hate the idea of people going: 'Oh, did you ever do anything else besid…"