Dame Barbara Cartland was an endearing eccentric, and when I interviewed her, she wanted me to listen to her dictating to her secretary one of those romantic novels that she turned out fortnightly.

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

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.

Connery made Bond real through his physicality. He did most of his own stunts and fights, and the audience knew it was him.

Craig has explored the darker recesses of 007's psyche. He has shown us the lonely man. And he has shown him falling truly in love.

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.

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

There is some brilliant pop music and some very poor classical music. And why shouldn't comedy be treated as seriously as drama?

We were working class, and you don't lose that. Later on, I bolted on media middle class... and now people like me are in the House of Lords.

Love of place is one of the characteristics I enjoy most about novelists.

Britain is undoubtedly becoming more cultural. No question of it. People who say it is dumbing down simply don't look around enough. They don't know enough.

If I meet pals, we do hug each other, and it's very nice, you know... it's something that's come on me late and became second nature, and it's first nature now!

There is an army of the informed wanting to be more informed.

As the 20th century unspooled, a cultural warming melted down many frozen class characteristics.

I do think the BBC could do more, but I've always thought the BBC could do more - I think there should be more arts programmes full stop.

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.

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.

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

Miliband failed us, his Labour supporters. And Labour will now, because of him, be in a disaster zone for a long time.

Like university science departments, the arts have shown how they can earn their way and point to an economically newborn future for this country. They show that the U.K. could be a prime provider of imaginative riches and intellectual adventure, which I think are the two great prizes of the 21st century.

It's amazing that Sky is the only place that has two dedicated arts channels. The BBC is doing very well... but why don't they do more?

More people go to Tate Modern than watch the Arsenal.

It is very difficult for middle-aged, institutionalised males who have done so well out of subsidy - and, fair play, given much back - to realise that there is a time to be a well-heeled revolutionary.

Too old at 72? Careful. Ageism is out. We'll have the law on you!