It would no doubt be very sentimental to argue - but I would argue it nevertheless - that the peculiar combination of joy and sadness in bell music - both of clock chimes, and of change-ringing - is very typical of England. It is of a piece with the irony in which English people habitually address one another.
A. N. Wilson
I believe the collapse of the House of Windsor is tied in with the collapse of the Church of England.
In England, everyone believes if you think, then you don't feel. But all my novels are about joining together thinking and feeling.
A. S. Byatt
After years of touring you experience music festivals that are mostly the same - where you copy and paste the same experience into a muddy field in California or a muddy field in England.
Aaron Dessner
It's funny because if you ever ask anyone in England to try and do a Beatles accent, no one knows what they really sound like. If you ask anyone in America, they would try and give it a go. English people just know their songs.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
I was born in Mumbai, but I grew up in England, and then my adulthood has been in the States. I'm an American stuffed with an English person with an Indian person inside. I feel like those things kind of inform me in some way, which I think helps me as an actor.
Aasif Mandvi
In England or America, actors do not have to cater to an image. In India, it is almost demanded of us. Very seldom do you get a film where you can walk away from your image.
Abhishek Bachchan
I was raised to believe that New England is the best place on the planet.
Abigail Johnson
Coming from a small South Dakota school, it was a different route to get to the NFL. I went from South Dakota State to the World League of American Football with the Amsterdam Admirals, and fortunately I did well enough there that the New England Patriots decided to sign me and give me a chance.
Adam Vinatieri
I mean, if I was going to leave New England, it wasn't going to be just for the sake of leaving.
Of course I would like to return to Spanish football, but I promised myself I would be a success in England.
Adama Traore
I'm going to say it out loud: I'm available for England selection if they serve chicken for pre-match.
Adebayo Akinfenwa
I enjoy watching England but I won't rearrange my schedule just to make sure I'm in to see the game.
Americans are always mortified when I tell them this, but in England, it's a tradition to put your plaques and photographs and awards and gold records and stuff in your bathroom. I don't know why.
Adele
I'm from Europe, England, and I actually lived in Italy.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
I was born in England, but India is the only place I feel at home.
Adnan Sami
Because of England's lack of social mobility, unless they make truly heroic efforts, writers who are privately educated and then go on to Oxbridge or an institution like the BBC will generally embarrass themselves when they attempt to have a go at working- or lower middle-class characters.
Adrian McKinty
After secondary school, the big thing to do was apply for uni in England or Scotland and then just stay there.
More and more do I see that only a successful revolution in India can break England's back forever and free Europe itself. It is not a national question concerning India any longer; it is purely international.
Agnes Smedley
Some people admire the aspirational rock star figures whose biopics make it to TV, the people they watched as kids and made them want to play football for England. For some comics, it is often the Doug Stanhopes and the Joan Rivers.
Aisling Bea
I had a bad break up at university - you know, when your heart breaks for the very first time, and you think, 'I must leave this island,' as if it had never happened to anyone before. I said 'OK, I'll go to England,' and it was the best decision I ever made.
Yes, I'm having World Cup withdrawals; but no, this is sneaky of me to say, but I actually care about Tottenham more than I care about the England team.
My grandmother flew only once in her life, and that was the day she and her new husband ascended into the skies of Victorian London in the wicker basket of a hot-air balloon. They were soon to emigrate to Canada, and the aerial ride was meant to be a last view of their beloved England.
Growing up in a Canadian household that was more British than Big Ben, I dreamed of flying to England myself and visiting the places my family never tired of talking about. I always woke up before the plane landed.
I grew up in a very British family who had been transplanted to Canada, and my grandmother's house was filled with English books. I was a very early reader, so I was really brought up being surrounded with piles of British books and British newspapers, British magazines. I developed a really great love of England.
London has been used as the emblematic English city, but it's far from representative of what life in England is actually about.
I've got nothing against America, but I went over there a couple of times and didn't really like it. I mean, not that I like England that much, but it's somewhere to live.
I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy.
Los Angeles is not a town full of airheads. There's a great deal of wonderful energy there. They say 'yes' to things; not like the endless 'nos' and 'hrrumphs' you get in England!
When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.
I was a student in London in the '70s, so CBGB really wasn't on my radar at all. Obviously, I was aware of the emergence of the Police in England and as an art student, I was very aware of David Byrne, but I suppose my musical taste at that time certainly didn't stretch towards the Dead Boys or the Ramones.
England in the '60s and the '70s was everything that history has said; it was phenomenally exciting, musically.
I still get butterflies when England are playing.
There is a lot of luck in football. Following England is like following Wycombe Wanders or Leyton Orient. You hope for the best and hope you are lucky.
It's surreal to think that no one has played as many Test matches for England. I suppose it's a credit to my longevity.
It does take a lot of effort to perform, playing for England. It's a huge amount of sacrifice to do and one day I might just wake up and say 'you know what, I'm done with it.'
If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don't want me to open the batting for England, it's going to hurt.
You're there to score runs. If you don't do that over a period of time, people will look elsewhere. That hasn't changed and that'll never change, whether it's myself or Jimmy Anderson, you've got to play to a certain level to be picked for England or even Essex.
Learning on the job as England captain is hard.
Playing for England is such a huge honour - it should always remain that.
Physically and mentally, it's quite hard. But I'm playing cricket for England. It's what I dream about doing.
Just because you're made England captain, it doesn't mean that you suddenly know everything about captaincy.
All I ever wanted to do was play cricket for England and be successful.
You're only England captain for a very short space of time.
I have loved cricket my whole life, from playing in the garden as a child, and will never underestimate how special it is to pull on an England shirt.
The captaincy thing is brilliant, and I love it. But I didn't start off playing cricket to captain England. I wanted to score runs and stuff.
No disrespect to county cricket but when you're playing for England it is the ultimate, it is what has always driven me to push myself above and beyond.
When you give up something as big as playing for England there are going to be moments when you miss it.
The England captaincy job, after 50-odd games, has found out what kind of leader I am in terms of a person. It's made me feel far more confident in terms of talking to a group in any situation. But it has taken me a long time to feel like I've been doing it naturally.
When you step out of the team environment you think, 'Wow, I'm England captain and we've just won the Ashes.'
