In praise of........

I wonder if you can guess who the following quotes belong to,  someone who is deeply sensitive and writes as wittily as Oscar Wilde, loves animals and became a vegetarian at the age of 14. 



"I like animals very much - lovable, dumb chums, loyal, decent and lovely - and if I'd had my way I'd've been reared in a menagerie." 

"I really craved the company of animals - the wordless simplicity of it.  Even now, with my cat Morrissey, I cherish the moments that I'm absolutely alone with him, and the unrecorded tenderness that no one will ever know of - I don't even feed him that much any more, 'cos Lynne, the housekeeper, does that now.  But he seems to want something from me that isn't food, and perhaps that thing is love."

"When I was eleven, I got a gerbil, Barney.  I worshipped Barney the way primitive people worshipped the animals they hunted, seeing in the creature a connection to the natural and the divine.  My devotion was swiftly rewarded when Barney, with scant regard for his gender, quite brilliantly had a litter of babies.  I treasure the memory of these tiny, pink, squirming chipolatas.  It was miraculous - like how Christmas should feel."

"It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you. No-one really feels self-confident deep down because it's an artificial idea. Really, people aren't that worried about what you're doing or what you're saying, so you can drift around the world relatively anonymously: you must not feel persecuted and examined. Liberate yourself from that idea that people are watching you."


"For me happiness occurs arbitrarily: a moment of eye contact on a bus, where all at once you fall in love; or a frozen second in a park where it's enough that there are trees in the world"

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Well I never! 

Russell Brand, twice voted The Sexiest Vegetarian Alive (2008 & 2009)

All quotes taken from 'My Booky Wook' by Russell Brand

I was inspired to find out more about Russell Brand because of something I'd seen on t.v.  I can't remember which programme it was, but the production company had arranged for a woman, heavily laden with parcels and carrier bags, to drop them in a busy London street, viewed by a hidden camera.  They did this numerous times to see if anyone would stop to help her.  No one did for ages until along came a lanky lad with a woollen hat hiding his hair.  At first they didn't recognise him - it turned out to be Russell Brand!