It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.

The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, and anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its true place. When true silence falls we are left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.

If Milosevic is to be tried, he has to be tried by a proper court, an impartial, properly constituted court which has international respect.

I don't give a damn what other people think. It's entirely their own business. I'm not writing for other people.

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings - unless they're Americans - is called collateral damage.

There's a tradition in British intellectual life of mocking any non-political force that gets involved in politics, especially within the sphere of the arts and the theatre.

Nothing is more sterile or lamentable than the man content to live within himself.