The notion of 'history from below' hit the history profession in England very hard around the time I came to Oxford in the early 1960s.
Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.
'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and personal confusion.
We didn't know the importance of home computers before the Internet. We had them mostly for fun, then the Internet came along and was enabled by all the PCs out there.
It felt very natural to me to write a Christmas song, but at the same time I had to really put all sorts of pressure aside and just let the creativity flow and see what came out.
My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.
And my dad wanted me to play the trumpet because that's what he liked. His idol was Louis Armstrong. My dad thought my teeth came together in a way that was perfect for playing the trumpet.
When my first semester grades came out, my mom and dad told me I wouldn't be playing football.
I was good at football and cricket at school. My dad said, 'Son, be an architect,' and I came to Melbourne passionate about becoming an architect.
I was completely unhealthy, obese, so I committed to running three miles every morning for six months and following a strict diet, and 100 pounds came off.
For most of us, when our 'dreams' - I use the word with reservations - came true, and marriage and motherhood became a reality, the romcoms, like horoscopes, swiftly lost their allure.
I can't comprehend that I'm in the film of 'Les Miserables.' It's one of those dreams I thought would be unattainable for someone like me, who came from nowhere.
My earliest interest in game design came when I was in primary school, and my parents bought a Commodore 128 computer. I taught myself to write programs in BASIC, and then I made my own games.
Stuff about me dating Kim Kardashian - I have no idea where that came from and all these other rumors. I don't think I'm that type.
I've been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No. No. They gave me hope, and they gave me encouragement, and they gave me a vision. That came from my education.
I came to realize I did believe in God. I couldn't conceive of a universe without someone overseeing it in a compassionate way.
I knew that I had a following here in England, and if I came over here maybe I could cultivate it, but I never dreamt it would be as great as it has been.
In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.
Yeah, that came out of a reading. It was great. It's such a fun crew to be with, and we all went out the night before and that really encouraged us to go out and get drunk.
Inspector Rebus is a great character, so when the opportunity came up to revive the role for 'BBC Children in Need,' and really have a bit of fun with it, I was happy to take part.
Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument about it and about: but evermore came out by the same door as in I went.
