Quotes from Melvyn Bragg

I'm going to try and make you take the Beatles and Eric Clapton as seriously as the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle.

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

Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.

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

My life is not very different from what it was 20 years ago. In fact, my career hasn't changed much since I was 22.

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

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

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.

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

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?

Sometimes, you're just moved by people's journeys.

Autobiographical fiction is very tricky.

We start out as sand and soot out there in the universe, and who knows, in 40 trillion years' time we might come back. But if we come back without memory, it doesn't really interest me.

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.

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

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.

That's why writing is important to me. Time goes past, and you've been somewhere and come back that hasn't hurt you, and you've been somebody else.

I'm a class mongrel.

To give religion two minutes a day, in its own space, isn't exactly selling general morality or atheism short.

In music, the Specials brought a city, Coventry, bombed out for a second time and riven with racism, to a celebration between black and white musicians and their music.

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.

I don't get nervous when I'm interviewing someone on film - it can be cut, and we can do it again. It is quite nerve-racking doing things live.

Writers are looking for a story. Using your own life as the basis for a story gives it an association with reality that's a wonderful starting point.