Alain de Botton

“I've tried to write about Heathrow before and been escorted off the premises.”

“I'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed.”

“I was a very un-literary child, which might reassure parents with kids who don't read.”

“The solution as consumers is - perhaps surprisingly - to take adverts very, very seriously. We should ask ourselves what it is that we find lovely in them - the visions of friendship, togeth...”

“The greatest compliment I get about my writing is when people say, 'How did you know so much about me?' And of course, the answer is very simple: 'I just observed myself without sentimentali...”

“I think of myself as quite a shy person. But when I'm curious about something, I'll go quite far to satisfy my curiosity.”

“Often we think love is a feeling: that you spontaneously experience it.”

“I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there.”

“The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them fully developed in someone else.”

“I like the values associated with a medical family - common sense, being practical but also thoughtful.”

“When I'm writing, I write all day. Other days, I sit around thinking. Or I run around from one meeting to another, out in the world. It varies, and I like that.”

“On paper, being good sounds great but a lot depends on the atmosphere of the workplace or community we live in. We tend to become good or bad depending on the cues sent out within a particul...”