If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that's obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that's honey.

The fact that logic cannot satisfy us awakens an almost insatiable hunger for the irrational.

The really clever people now want to be lawyers or journalists.

History does not eliminate grievances. It lays them down like landmines.

Nearly all monster stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon, Harry Potter triumphing over the basilisk. That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it.

I believe the collapse of the House of Windsor is tied in with the collapse of the Church of England.

It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists, there are only the dead, many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective.