We should be careful of the insults we fling at others, lest they return and land at our feet, newly minted to apply to those who had first coined them.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

Reality television, which turned its eye on people who were doing nothing but being themselves, was the perfect expression of this trend [of narcissism]. Let's look at ourselves, it said. Aren't we fascinating?

The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That's how most people thought.

The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.

Who can't like pigs? They're wonderful creatures! I've always liked pigs.

But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn't it? - and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.