230 Quotes by Clive James

One way or another, all the poets of the thirties and forties reacted to Auden, either by rejecting him or trying to absorb him.

Spending all my remaining money on a ticket to Florence was rendered needlessly complicated by the fact that none of the ticket-sellers had ever heard of the place. At last their supervisor showed up and set them straight by informing them that the city they had always referred to as 'Firenze' was in reality called Florence.

Perhaps I should have pointed out more often that without her (mother's) guidance and example I might have gone straight from short pants to Long Bay Gaol, which in those days was still in use and heavily populated by larcenous young men who had chosen their parents less wisely.

A decade ago, critics suggested biotech crops would not be valuable in the developing world. Now 90 percent of farmers who benefit are resource-poor farmers in developing countries. These helped alleviate 7.7 million subsistence farmers in China, India, South Africa, the Philippines from abject poverty.

I saw the film Pearl Harbour and it made me wish that the Japanese had bombed Hollywood instead!

On the correctly formed pubescent girl, a Speedo looked wonderful. When it was wet, it was an incitement to riot.

The key to effective teaching is to remember how you learned.

Freedom and diversity guard each other, and if a country could form the whole of one's character, Napoleon III and Victor Hugo would have been the same person... if national identity means anything, it means something that comes with you wherever you go, and stays with you no matter how long you stay away.

Jack Aubrey is a tremendous tower of strength and you always want to read about him.