A. N. Wilson

“The latest research has revealed that women have a higher IQ than men.”

“Fear of death has never played a large part in my consciousness - perhaps unimaginative of me.”

“'In Memoriam' has been my companion for all my grownup life.”

“The United States is the ultimate land of optimistic promise, but it also gave birth to quintessentially pessimistic tragedy: 'Moby-Dick.'”

“It is remarkable how easily children and grown-ups adapt to living in a dictatorship organised by lunatics.”

“I do not find it easy to articulate thoughts about religion. I remain the sort of person who turns off 'Thought for the Day' when it comes on the radio.”

“I'm starting to realize that people are beginning to want to know about me. It's a jolly strange idea.”

“I've never had a study in my life. I'm like Jane Austen - I work on the corner of the dining table.”

“The approach of death certainly concentrates the mind.”

“The scribbler's life is never done.”

“If only Queen Elizabeth II had the intellectual, political and linguistic skills of Queen Elizabeth I, many people would support giving her some of the powers of an elected president.”

“I very much dislike the intolerance and moralism of many Christians, and feel more sympathy with Honest Doubters than with them.”

“There is no doubt that, since 1977 and the launch of Apple II - the first computer it produced for the mass market - many things which used to be done on paper, or on the telephone, have been done easier and faster on a screen.”

“I might be deceiving myself but I do not think that I do have an inordinate fear of death.”

“Iris Murdoch did influence my early novels very much, and influence is never entirely good.”

“It would no doubt be very sentimental to argue - but I would argue it nevertheless - that the peculiar combination of joy and sadness in bell music - both of clock chimes, and of change-ringing - is very typical of England. It is of a piece with the irony in which English people habitually address one another.”

“Like many people in Britain, I have an affectionate respect for the Queen, and am surprised that I should be having such republican thoughts.”

“Brain power improves by brain use, just as our bodily strength grows with exercise. And there is no doubt that a large proportion of the female population, from school days to late middle age, now have very complicated lives indeed.”

“On the rare occasions when I spend a night in Oxford, the keeping of the hours by the clock towers in New College, and Merton, and the great booming of Tom tolling 101 times at 9 pm at Christ Church are inextricably interwoven with memories and regrets and lost joys. The sound almost sends me mad, so intense are the feelings it evokes.”

“I think that if you can't be loyal to the Church, it's best to get out.”