Richard Coles

“I suppose I've always had a very genuine curiosity about religion. I loved the atmosphere of churches, the ethos; I adored Evensong.”

“I wanted to put together a Christmas album that went back to the stable in Bethlehem and the source of it all. It kind of gets lost sometimes.”

“I was born into the Church of England but in the most nominal way possible you can imagine, so it's Christmas and Easter. And then like a great many clergy in the Church of England I actually got nobbled by being a chorister.”

“My means of entry to 'Christianity was singing in a choir. As a boy chorister, I grew up with Ancient and Modern, the evening canticles, versicles and responses, and carols.”

“Trying to do Christianity properly is tough. Life as a priest is rigorous and disciplined. It involves sacrifices.”

“I got lucky with my parents. They were unfailingly loving and supportive, which gave me confidence about my place in the world.”

“I am loathe to say I have a strategy in the broadcasting work I do, but I do think it is possible to be a priest who has something to contribute to mainstream media as long as you aren't completely mad.”

“In corporate life, I have noticed, it is getting harder and harder to say that things are bad.”

“The thing I worry about with religion isn't to do much with forgetting Christmas. It's to do with religion being angry and violent.”

“I love talking about myself.”

“I am not in favour of hierarchies that grant privileges to members who fail to uphold those values - there are plenty of those - but the monarchy is really the Queen, who is of unimpeachable integrity and the longest serving head of state in the world, and who never puts a foot wrong.”

“I started playing the piano aged four in an effort to copy Grandpa, who was constantly showing off and entertaining us all, singing comic songs on his baby grand.”

“My dachshunds are not substitutes for children. But the pattering of tiny feet around the place is a joy.”

“I think that Christians should have confidence, we have always been part of the mainstream conversation, and if we don't join in often what you hear gets hectoring and mad, just people on the margins.”

“I'm not the first Christian to have a fruity past. I hesitate to compare myself to St Augustine or St Paul, but there is a precedent for this sort of thing.”

“But it's true I hadn't realised quite how much the discipleship of Jesus Christ would involve keeping up with email.”

“I'm looking for some centrist political party to find a home in and it's not there, actually.”

“Jesus comes among us, in our all division, not to instruct, comfort or inspire but to die. In doing so, He answers the sum of our self-regard, stupidity and cruelty.”

“I can't turn the clock back but I can seek the forgiveness of those I've wronged.”

“What I wear identifies me as a priest. I don't agree with all this trying to appear 'normal'. If you want that to be normal, don't take off your dog collar and then put it on again, because what you're doing is playing along with the view that wearing one makes you odd.”