Robert Browning

Fail I alone, in words and deeds? Why, all men strive and who succeeds?

Oh, the little more, and how much it is! And the little less, and what worlds away.

On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.

When I was 16, I used to hang out at the Nambucca pub in North London and see The Libertines play live.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

I think that, in almost all human beings, there is buried a profound tribal instinct that makes us very susceptible to being aroused to patriotic fervour.