I got through the sexual side of my first marriage - for six years! - by pretending that my husband was my friend Peter York. - Julie Burchill

Whenever I am sent a new book on the lively arts, the first thing I do is look for myself in the index.

Writing is more than anything a compulsion, like some people wash their hands thirty times a day for fear of awful consequences if they do not. It pays a whole lot better than this type of compulsion, but it is no more heroic.

Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.