If I'd stayed on in London and carried on going to literary parties, it would have wrecked me as a writer.
And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.
I remember growing up knowing I wanted to be on the stage. I wanted to get to London as soon as possible and start auditioning for theater.
My feeling is that if all Catholics or Reformed Christians had been deported to Germany, the Dutch government in London would have instructed the population in the occupied Netherlands to help them.
For a London play, rehearsal time would be four weeks for the entire show. In films, I'd spend six weeks on the big dance numbers to get them perfect before the actual shooting.
In course of time the Brothers Cowper removed the manufacture of their printing machines from London, to Manchester. There they found skilled and energetic workmen, ready to carry their plans into effect.
For a short time I was an assistant to a professional photographer, and I felt that my soul was not there. That is the stage when I decided to stay in London and do a graduate degree.
People ask me where I live most of the time, and it's kind of complicated for me to answer, because I'm not really sure. It's somewhere in between London, Rome, Paris, and Rio.
As a Londoner I was able to see how the world of power and money cast its shadow on those who failed.
I live in a flat in central London. I do like it there; there's always stuff going on. But I do crave a bit of peace and quiet.
The attacks of September 11 - and subsequent acts of terror from London to Madrid to Fort Hood, Texas - embody the most repulsive of human instincts, the will to power at the price of the lives of others.
The opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics are mass satanic rituals disguised as a celebration of Britain and sport. Their medium is the language of symbolism.
I love being in London, where I live, for the shops, the bars and the clubs - but I equally enjoy going to my mum's house in Ayrshire and being able to sit on a cliff by the sea.
I was on the train from London to Paris, and all of a sudden it just popped into my head: I'm going to do the Don Loper fashion show from 'I Love Lucy.'
The young Japanese, especially, love to wear the latest thing and when they come to London they head for my shops as part of what they want to find in Britain.
I love driving around east London - it's always full of surprises. Actually, I don't drive myself - I like to be driven.
Folk music is where I come from originally. The very first thing that introduced me to playing guitars at all was skiffle - my cousin had been in London the summer that skiffle was big.
David: Maybe its a sheep dog... lets keep going
Alex: Benjamin, have you ever been severely beaten about the face and neck?
Mr. Collins: These dumb ass kids. They never appreciate what you do for them.
Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.
