I'm not interested in writers who are overcome with certainty, with single-mindedness, or with a sense of how consistent and morally upstanding they are. My writers are in the thick of it and they seek the truth, rather than embody it, and sometimes they find truths that don't sit palatably or easily together. That's life. That's personality. And that's writing.

The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone.

Interviewing is not a democratic art.

I grew up in a working-class community. I come from a big family. I knew Donald Trump would win because I knew he is what poor Americans think a rich person looks like. And I knew that Hillary Clinton would annoy voters in their tens of millions, because she basically sucked at communicating with poor people and seemed like a person who'd been powerful and rich for decades. She was a disastrous candidate. I mean, she was up against a psychopath and she still lost. The country's thinking was beyond her, literally.

A living museum must surely see itself as a locus of argument. A breathing art institution is not a lockup but a moveable feast.

It's not a crime not to know yourself. It's not a crime to send life away. It's just a shame.

'Reality' is a notion that journalists take for granted.