“In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy ...” — Alain de Botton Quote

“In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.”

“There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.”

“Parents become very good at not hearing the explicit words and listening instead to what the child means but doesn't yet know how to say: 'I'm lonely, in pain, frightened' - distress which then unfairly comes out as an attack on the safest, kindest, most reliable thing in the child's world: the parent.”

“I sometimes think God allows Great Britain to be unprincipled for the good of mankind.”

“Let the message go out - a new generation has taken charge of Labour which is optimistic about our country, optimistic about our world, optimistic about the power of politics. We are optimistic and together we will change Britain.”

“I first competed for Great Britain in wheelchair racing in 1987 and for twenty years after that. For me, the passion came from the fact that I really loved competing and training to be better. And of course - like most sportspeople - I really wanted to win.”