“I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find ...” — Alain de Botton Quote

“I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of scaffolding I erect.”

“Many moments in religion seem attractive to me even though I can't believe in any of it.”

“I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.”

“The thing is that love gives us a ringside seat on somebody else's flaws, so of course you're gonna spot some things that kinda need to be mentioned. But often the romantic view is to say, 'If you loved me, you wouldn't criticise me.' Actually, true love is often about trying to teach someone how to be the best version of themselves.”

“When I'm writing, I write all day. Other days, I sit around thinking. Or I run around from one meeting to another, out in the world. It varies, and I like that.”

“Since the beginning of the 20th century, the public's relationship to art has been weakened by a profound institutional reluctance to address the question of what art is for. This is a question that has, quite unfairly, come to feel impatient, illegitimate, and a little impudent.”

“The most creative person is not the person who can come up with the best idea; it's the one who can take that group of things on the table and assemble them in the greatest multiple of unique ways.”

“It is with deep regret that the determination to assemble Parliament has been so long delayed.”

“The first thing you have to do is to sequence the Neanderthal genome, and that has actually been done. The next step would be to chop this genome up into, say, 10,000 chunks and then... assemble all the chunks in a human stem cell, which would enable you to finally create a Neanderthal clone.”

“One of the biggest mistakes people make when they cook for other people is to think that it has to be fancy and elaborate. This results in enormous expense and nine days of labor, plus you end up trying to assemble a croquembouche in front of your guests and everyone's experiencing flop sweat.”

“When I was a child, on Sunday mornings the family would assemble around the blue-leather-covered gramophone to listen to records.”