“We got a copy of the 'New Statesman' at my grammar school in Wigton, C...” — Melvyn Bragg Quote

“We got a copy of the 'New Statesman' at my grammar school in Wigton, Cumbria, in the 1950s. It sat mint fresh every week on the library table, with two or three other bargain-offer magazines. The 'Statesman' came out of the unimaginable Great World. I started to read it then and have pegged along ever since.”

“Control, like curiosity, can be an exterminator.”

“Writers are looking for a story. Using your own life as the basis for a story gives it an association with reality that's a wonderful starting point.”

“I see pundits on the box, saying kids will watch 'Match of the Day' and copy what they see, but if you tell your children to live their lives exactly as they see footballers on the telly doing it, you must be a bit of an idiot.”

“We live through life, but we live through art, too. And in art, as in life, nothing is generalized. No one thing is a copy of the next. Everything is individual.”

“I was going to play pro baseball. That was the dream. But in my sophomore year of high school a teacher who knew I performed, singing in church, she said, 'You know we have a speech team,' and she handed me a copy of 'The Crucible.'”