A biography for A. A. Gillhasn’t been written yet.
“I don't remember ever stealing things, but I suppose I was endlessly borrowing money off people.”
“For men, privacy means not being told stuff that would hurt. For women, secrecy is having stuff go on behind your back.”
“When you look at traditions closely, examine what they really are, you realize they're made up of layers and layers of deferrals, delays, indecisions, tomorrows and long lunches.”
“It's not in the nature of stoic Cincinnatians to boast, which is fortunate, really, for they have meager pickings to boast about.”
“The answer is that if God exists, he doesn't seem to mind if you believe in him or not.”
“The Creation Museum isn't really a museum at all. It's an argument. It's not even an argument. It's the ammunition for an argument. It is the Word made into bullets. An armory of righteous revisionism.”
“Gifts are an important and necessary part of our collective lives. We need to give and we need to allow others to give.”
“I can tell very quickly when people are lying.”
“Cowboy boots you can't wear unless you actually are a cowboy or in a Status Quo tribute band, or over 60; there's something about a retiring gent in cowboy boots that looks sort of presidential.”
“People who don't believe in God are no happier than people who do, and those who do believe are no nicer than those who don't.”
“Margaret Thatcher was as viscerally hated at home as she was warmly respected abroad.”
“No 13-year-old or over should ever be seen in trousers that finish above the ankle. It doesn't matter how good your legs are, or if you're on a beach in Bermuda where they invented the things.”
“I'm frightened of my innate vanity. I mean: the suits lined with scarves? Even I know the warning signs. I could quite easily end up in a tiny Playboy mansion, all on my own.”
“I don't go to the openings of shops or parties given by people I don't know.”
“Learning Jimmy Carr riffs off by heart is not the way to anyone's heart, unless you're Jimmy Carr. And remember, the two most attractive things in a man is a sense of danger and being able to make a girl feel really safe.”
“People who know there is a god and people who know there isn't live in exactly the same world. Same number of hours in the day, same weather, same football results. They both love their children and die of the same diseases.”
“The truth is a mayor can actually do very little to alter the course of a huge city run by the free market that is home to banking - the engine room of capitalism.”
“My only piece of advice is that all of you consider every single text and Snapchat that you ever make as also being shared with your partner, because they all check your phones all the time - trust me on this one.”
“A cravat has to be approached with consummate self-confidence and a devilish nonchalance. A cravat has to be grasped by a man who knows how to treat a cravat.”
“I don't know if English is the only language where some expressions only and solely mean the opposite of what they say but we do have an awful lot of them.”