A. N. Wilson

“Tolstoy had that crucial attribute of a great novelist: he was a bad man.”

“The Church of England is the only church in the world that interferes with neither your politics nor your religion.”

“I do not believe that there is any such thing as a historical novel. All novels are contemporary.”

“A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.”

“My own recipe for longevity is less enjoyment and more moderation in my consumption of food and drink.”

“The loss of belief in future states is the loss of a human faculty.”

“Biography is a very definite genre with its own integrity.”

“So much of the trouble is because I am a philistine.”

“Failure is a state of mind. It's like poverty. It's a state of mind. Both are temporary.”

“The past is not a foreign country.”