A biography for Melvyn Bragghasn’t been written yet.
“A lot of the novels that I've really enjoyed in my life, whether it's Tolstoy's 'Cossacks,' or 'Sons and Lovers' or 'Jude the Obscure' or 'David Copperfield' or 'Herzog,' have an autobiographical spine.”
“To give religion two minutes a day, in its own space, isn't exactly selling general morality or atheism short.”
“Sometimes, you're just moved by people's journeys.”
“You ask 20 of your friends how English and American democracy came about. None of them would say that Anglicanism or Protestantism had anything to do with it. But it was crucial to it!”
“I've been making arts programmes for almost 50 years, and every day, I can't believe my luck.”
“A lot of the novels I admire are 'admirably provincial.'”
“Miliband failed us, his Labour supporters. And Labour will now, because of him, be in a disaster zone for a long time.”
“I was brought up in a strong working-class community by working-class parents and relations until I was 18, and that's what I really am. Now all sorts of things have been added, but that's what I am.”
“People in jobs that they hate must be worn out.”
“The abolition of slavery was driven by the King James Bible. It gave slaves a common language and purpose.”
“The BBC does a sterling job, but I'd like to see it do more. ITV does four arts programmes a year; it used to be 28. At least Sky, with its two arts channels, is trying.”
“Well, I don't think I'm good-looking... I know people who are good-looking, and I'm not good-looking.”
“In the 40 or so years I've known David Puttnam, not only has he pursued an outstanding career in films and now politics, but he has been the keeper of the flame of the British film industry.”
“Magna Carta has 63 clauses in abbreviated Latin. Two of them that are still on the statute book, numbers 39 and 40, could be said to have changed the way in which the free world has grown.”
“It was my idea for high culture and popular culture to be treated equally.”
“Work is a great blotter up. It stops you thinking, which is useful. No, it stops you feeling.”
“I'll never forget my interview with Barry Humphries - one of the oddest I've ever done. He insisted that for half the time he appeared as Dame Edna. So I interviewed the real Barry Humphries in a suit and tie, and then I interviewed Edna in full fig in her dressing room, where she criticised Barry mercilessly.”
“I just got fed up with the Protestantism that I'd been brought up with being rubbed out, disregarded. There's an awful lot of frailty and doubt about it, which I understand and share, but there are certain things you just have to acknowledge.”
“My life is not very different from what it was 20 years ago. In fact, my career hasn't changed much since I was 22.”
“I'm addicted to 'Game Of Thrones.'”