My first rule of consumerism is never to buy anything you can't make your children carry.
I had always thought that once you grew up you could do anything you wanted - stay up all night or eat ice-cream straight out of the container.
I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour.
Boston's freeway system is insane. It was clearly designed by a person who had spent his childhood crashing toy trains.
Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century. The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed.
The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed.
I come from Des Moines. Someone had to.
Des Moines is like your typical American city; it's just these concentric circles of malls, built outward from the city.
Where I grew up, in Des Moines, Iowa, there is hardly any downtown economic activity now. Everybody shops in malls - you don't find a sense of community in malls.
Much as I resented having to grow up in Des Moines, it gave me a real appreciation for every place in the world that's not Des Moines.
I grew up in Des Moines. My dad had a house full of books, things like P.G. Wodehouse books and 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte.
I often feel I'm a disappointment to people because they expect me to be the guy in the books. When I sit next to someone at a dinner party I can see they expect me to be quick and witty, and I'm not at all.
An awful lot of England is slowly eroding, in ways that I find really distressing, and an awful lot of it is the hedgerows... We're reaching the point where a lot of the English countryside looks just like Iowa - just kind of open space.
The world is very lucky to have America. It's got to be the first time in the whole history of the planet that a country has been the dominant force in the world and it has actually been a force for good... America really deserves more credit.
In any area of human endeavour, there is going to be mediocrity. You're going to find people who get money that they shouldn't get.
I can wear a baseball cap; I am entitled to wear a baseball cap. I am genetically pre-disposed to wear a baseball cap, whereas most English people look wrong in a baseball cap.
I hadn't realized quite how extraordinary Charles Lindbergh's achievement was in flying the Atlantic alone. He had never flown over open water before, but he flew straight to Dingle Bay in Ireland and then on to Paris, exactly as planned.
In a funny way, nothing makes you feel more like a native of your own country than to live where nearly everyone is not.
In order to have quality journalism you need to have a good income stream, and no Internet model has produced a way of generating income that would pay for good-quality investigative journalism.
The whole of the global economy is based on supplying the cravings of two per cent of the world's population.
