I put it to you that there are no British poets, there are no British novelists. I have heard myself described as one, but I think really I'm an English novelist; there are Scottish poets and Scottish novelists.
They're very harsh people, the British: hard to impress, very tough on each other, but I rather like that. It's not that the British are more honest - you're just under no illusion with them.
The British media is sinking down, as the American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator.
When I became the chair of the British Film Institute, I didn't understand how much of my time would be taken up with trying to make a case for the British Film Institute: what it's for, why it exists, why it needs its money.
When I was younger, I was in love with everything about the British Isles, from British folklore to Celtic music. That was always where my passions were as a young girl, and so I studied folklore as a college student in England and Ireland.
More than 55,000 men from Bomber Command lost their lives, of whom 38,000 were British. That's one in 10 of all the British servicemen lost in the Second World War. It beggars belief that there has not been some recognition for what they gave until n...
When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical.
Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.
The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.
London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.
Jim: Amatus sum, amatus es, amatus est.
I'm a businesswoman who's serious about her money. I want an empire.
[Guran is coming in to bat] British Team Member: Coming from the jungle? [men laughing] British Team Member 2: Make way! [men laughing] British Team Member: Don't get too close, Smithy! [men laughing] British Team Member 2: What on Earth is he doing?...
There's always another secret.' -Kelsier
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
There's no longer a monolithic evil empire somewhere, spreading a different philosophy of life. That doesn't exist.
I think The Empire Strikes Back had everything.
The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.
Sgt. Nagata: [to Jim] Boy. Difficult boy.
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
