The English like eccentrics. They just don't like them living next door.

It's almost a way of life. I know what makes me laugh.

I'm not sure how aware of the rest of the world I am. I live a rather sheltered existence.

It was all about wanting to get revenge. Pathetic, really, but it still is the motivation.

I was lightweight - that was the whole point of me.

It's a wise thing to hold back.

I've found a more personal, pagan kind of religion to satisfy the spiritual side of things.

There is a single entendre, but I don't know about a triple one.

The public has always had affection for gay entertainers. The time was right for an out gay entertainer.

I knew that this was what I wanted to talk about on stage. There was no point being coy about it, or pretending that I wasn't gay. That was the substance of my whole act. If you took that away, there would be nothing left.

I didn't think of myself as a tart, but I wouldn't argue with anyone who did.

However light-hearted you try to be about it, the loss of youth, and everything that goes with it, is quite a trauma.

The bullying was hideous and relentless, and we turned it round by making ourselves celebrities.

I live in a kind of gay bubble. I live in a gay house, I drive a gay car. I eat gay food.

Rodents can come across as being quite vacant in the personality stakes.

I thought a dignified thing to do would be to live in the country by the time I'm 50 and write books.

If I've been here a long time, I think: I must go to London and speak to someone or see a bus.

The English like eccentrics. They just don't like them living next door.

A lot of gay men have a lot of sex. That's what we do. But I've stopped all that-the revolving door into my bedroom. Promiscuity. That was of its day, really.

I get just as much of a thrill out of constructing a good sentence that gets a laugh at the end as I do from a joke.

I'm currently in an interesting correspondence with a nun about forgiveness.

I thought they were staring at me because I was gay. But it was because I was on the telly.

The whole business of getting famous was good fun, but it was a long time ago.

Just because someone's dead doesn't mean it's over. My grandfather died more than 25 years ago, but I still think of him a lot and smell his smell.

The good thing about getting older is that, as you become less attractive, so you have less desire to go out and conquer everyone you see.

I think Australians like a bit of vulgarity.

I am full of gratitude for my life - and for this house.

The good thing about getting older is that as you become less attractive so you have less desire to go out and conquer everyone you see.

'Batman' took 10 months to film, and by the time I stopped working on it, it took a long time before my English accent came out again. I was actually having to try for it.

English football has just had a transfer window imposed for the first time, so it will be interesting to see how managers cope with the squads they have until it re-opens.

Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?

Sometimes I feel I can't quite master my written and spoken Spanish, because I'm too much a student of English. I would need another lifetime to learn it.

It has since been agreed that speeches given in English will be translated into French and vice versa, and even into German and Italian when necessary. No doubt translations into Esperanto will also soon be in demand.

I'm learning English at the moment. I can say 'Big Ben', 'Hello Rodney', 'Tower Bridge' and 'Loo'.

No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.

The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself.

Apart from a few simple principles, the sound and rhythm of English prose seem to me matters where both writers and readers should trust not so much to rules as to their ears.

The English people, a lot of them, would not be able to understand a word of spoken Shakespeare. There are people who do and I'm not denying they exist. But it's a far more philistine country than people think.

The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth.

In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.

Although spoken English doesn't obey the rules of written language, a person who doesn't know the rules thoroughly is at a great disadvantage.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

I think the biggest difficulty is that when I'm here in America, there's a necessity of using English, so I really have a great sense of really wanting to learn, but unfortunately when I head back to Japan, the necessity vanishes and so does my enthusiasm about learning.

The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.

A Shakespeare could have arisen only on English soil. In the same way, your great dramatists and poets express the nature and essence of the Norwegian people, but they also express that which is universally valid for all mankind.

I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds.

The English can be a very critical, unforgiving people, but criticism can be good. And this is a country that loves comedy.

The true sovereign is not the American president nor the English king, but the Lord of the Second Advent.

The English press treated the world premiere of my first talking picture as a major event.