Growing older, I have lost the need to be political, which means ... the need to be left. I am driven to grudging toleration of the Conservative Party because it is the party of non-politics, of resistance to politics.

Outside every fat man there is an even fatter man trying to close in.

The ideal of brotherhood of man, the building of the Just City, is one that cannot be discarded without lifelong feelings of disappointment and loss. But, if we are to live in the real world, discard it we must.

Cats are only human, they have their faults.

I want a dish to taste good, rather than to have been seethed in pig's milk and served wrapped in a rhubarb leaf with grated thistle root.

We should be wrong to demand that a critic must stay on the point all the time; it is enough if he remains in orbit around it.

I sometimes feel that more lousy dishes are presented under the banner of pate than any other.