British Quotes

We think of medieval England as being a place of unbelievable cruelty and darkness and superstition. We think of it as all being about fair maidens in castles, and witch-burning, and a belief that the world was flat. Yet all these things are wrong.

We are, of course, now against any other group burning Qurans. We would right now ask no one to burn Qurans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.

The funny thing about history is that we imagine that people didn't laugh in the old days, but of course they did, at stupid things.

Some people are passionate about aisles, others about window seats.

Medieval learning was really advanced.

It doesn't worry me what anyone says, except when publicity hurts others.

I've never been good at improvising.

I've got a soft spot for Theatr Colwyn because my granddad used to run the Colwyn amateur dramatic society in the 1930s.

I've been very lucky to have been able to act, write and direct and not have to choose just the one thing.

I'm cheerfully optimistic about life. Optimism is very important!

I'm a good cook; one of my specialities is reindeer and potato pie.

I'd like something that peels potatoes really quickly - that would be wonderful.

I'd always thought that if Python was going to go on at all, it'd be nice to get into storylines.

I spent my earliest years in Colwyn Bay in north Wales with my mother and grandmother, while my father was stationed with the RAF in India.

I like my stories once removed.

I like fantasy.

I don't think you need religion.

I don't think people who have children are acting selfishly or unselfishly. Having a child who'll be loved, to parents who love each other, is the important thing.

Fatherhood is wonderful.

Every age sort of has its own history. History is really the stories that we retell to ourselves to make them relevant to every age. So we put our own values and our own spin on it.

To lose a son under those circumstances - a violent death like my son went through, it just puts a burden on your heart.

Nova Scotia as a British colony also came into being as another result of these adventurous British expeditions to North America in the reign of James I.

In 1628 came the first English attack on Canada.

Iceland, though it lies so far to the north that it is partly within the Arctic Circle, is, like Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, affected by the Gulf Stream, so that considerable portions of it are quite habitable.

As the winter set in with its customary Canadian severity the real trouble of the French began. They did not suffer from the cold, but they were dying of scurvy.

As soon as the news of the Cabot voyages reached the King of Portugal he arranged to send an expedition of discovery to the far north-west, perhaps to find a northern sea route to Eastern Asia.

Long after this wonderful event in the Earth's history, when the human species was spread over a good deal of Asia, Europe, and Africa, migration to the American continents began in attempts to find new feeding grounds and unoccupied areas for hunting and fishing.

It just happens I write fast and always have done.

If we judged everybody by the stupid, unguarded things they blurt out to their nearest and dearest, then we wouldn't ever get anywhere.

I'm a one-nation Tory.