In 1979, postmodernism lost its understanding of the meaning of ornament. It degenerated into kitsch applique.

If you look at Gothic detailing right down to the bottom of a column or the capital of a column, it's a small version of the whole building; that's why, like dating the backbones of a dinosaur, a good historian can look at a detail of a Gothic building and tell you exactly what the rest of the building was, and infer the whole from the parts.

Can't you see, we are in a dialogue with the universe?

Like our attitude to love, truth and goodness, we seem to be confident about knowing what beauty is - certain, even dogmatic - until we think hard about the idea, whereupon all confidence flies away.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.

Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

I treated the first few books as a very long journalistic exercise. I thought of every chapter as an article that needed to be finished.

Dying before dying has two important consequences: It liberates the individual from the fear of death and influences the actual experience of dying at the time of biological demise.