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" The idea that popular arts were shallow by definition and the traditional arts were profound was dead, I thought, and I wanted to prove it. "

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" A lot of the novels I admire are 'admirably provincial.' "

" We listened to a lot of drama, adaptations of books, comedy. There was a real love of music expressed in choirs, because you didn't have to have instruments except your voice. "

" Darwin talks about evolution, but he doesn't say how it started. Maybe the sense of mystery will dissolve in the face of science, but I am not so sure. We are all described by the human genome, but it's getting people nowhere. "

" I don't feel like I'm slowing down. "

" If you look at the creative economy in this country, it's per capita way bigger than any other in the world. "

" I don't feel inferior in the slightest to anybody - or superior to anybody, let's get that clear. But I do feel different. "

" Few places on earth have been as affectionately alchemised into literature as the Lake District. "

" It was my idea for high culture and popular culture to be treated equally. "

Popular Culture

" One of the great things about making 'Reel History' was meeting British people from all over the class system. It made me realise that London is a different country. "

" In the 40 or so years I've known David Puttnam, not only has he pursued an outstanding career in films and now politics, but he has been the keeper of the flame of the British film industry. "

" The class barricades have been stormed by the forces of a broad culture, which is made up of clusters of individuals who have decided for themselves what they will be in society. "

" Magna Carta has become totemic. It is in the comedy of Tony Hancock, in the poetry of Kipling, never far from the front pages in a constitutional crisis. "

" Class doesn't create culture anymore. "

" In an arts programme, my job was to go where the talent was. And the talent was in popular culture. "

" Well, I don't think I'm good-looking... I know people who are good-looking, and I'm not good-looking. "

" The abolition of slavery was driven by the King James Bible. It gave slaves a common language and purpose. "

" I've been writing since I was 19. "

" I got the job I wanted when I was 22, and I'm not going to give it up now. "

" I decided years ago that I am just unfashionable. "

" I have written favourably in support of subsidy for the arts since the 1960s, and I continue to believe absolutely in subsidy, as I do in the BBC licence fee. "

" I'm a class mongrel. "

" I'm a Labour party supporter, but I'm also a democrat. "

" There's a lot of hours in the week if you use them properly. "

" There are two big beasts in the arts: the BBC and Sky Arts - challenging, leading the way. "

" In the 1990s, from the estates of Scotland came the phenomenon of Irvine Welsh. 'Trainspotting' demanded its place not only in the high ranks of contemporary fiction but as a describer of a Britain that literally and metaphorically was in a deep mess. "

" I was brought up in a strong working-class community by working-class parents and relations until I was 18, and that's what I really am. Now all sorts of things have been added, but that's what I am. "

" The success of the arts has come through a mix of public subsidy, substantial private support, and good box-office receipts, but central to Labour's post-1997 programme has been a determination to increase access as much as excellence. "

" The theatre always seems to be in trouble but always thriving. It's deeply comical to me that we agonize about our crap football teams and indifferent Test sides when in front of our noses is a great world success story that no one's interested in apart from those who work in it. "

" The BBC does a sterling job, but I'd like to see it do more. ITV does four arts programmes a year; it used to be 28. At least Sky, with its two arts channels, is trying. "

" Magna Carta has 63 clauses in abbreviated Latin. Two of them that are still on the statute book, numbers 39 and 40, could be said to have changed the way in which the free world has grown. "