hum

My advice is to do what you can this second. Big plans that rely on other people, new equipment, long periods of time … they’re no good. What can you do right now?

You can’t watch the X Factor. This is England! You made Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Venom, Motörhead, Def Leppard, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, The Smiths, The Cure, The Damned, The Jam, The Police, The Sex Pistols, The Crush, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Jarvis Cocker, David Bowie, Queen, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Supertramp, Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy, and if you’re watching the X Factor after a résumé like that, I’m just telling ya, you are a bit of a bastard.

My daily affairs are quite ordinary;
but I’m in total harmony with them.
I don’t hold on to anything, don’t reject anything;
nowhere an obstacle or conflict.
Who cares about wealth and honour?
Even the poorest thing shines.
My miraculous power and spiritual activity:
drawing water and carrying wood.

MR BARR:  Sir, would you like a break now before we call the final witness of the morning?

LORD JUSTICE LEVESON:  We’ll need a break some time.  If it’s more convenient now, Mr Barr, as long as you don’t blame it on me, then I’m comfortable to have it now.  If you want to carry on, whatever.

MR BARR:  I wouldn’t dream of blaming you, sir.

LORD JUSTICE LEVESON:  You were, actually.  All right. We’ll take a couple of minutes.

The Leveson Inquiry

You told me backstage you were going to bowl me straight balls. If these are straight balls, I’d hate to see your googlies.

Un sogno sembra un sogno fino a quando non si comincia a lavorarci.

Adriano Olivetti

When an American woman gives you a tour of her house, she leads you through all the rooms. Instead, this expat showed me her favourite window views: from her desk, from her (single) bed, from her reading chair. As I perched for a moment in each spot, trying her life on for size, I thought about the years I’d spent struggling against the four walls of my apartment, and I wondered what my mother’s life would have been like had she lived and divorced my father. A room of one’s own, for each of us. A place where single women can live and thrive as themselves.