He is, I think, already pondering a magisterial project: that of buggering the English language, the ultimate revenge of the colonialised.

He was a lovely man in many ways. But he kept on insisting on forgiving me when there was nothing to forgive.

The kind of power mothers have is enormous. Take the skyline of Istanbul - enormous breasts, pathetic little willies, a final revenge on Islam. I was so scared I had to crouch in the bottom of the boat when I saw it.

Is not this world an illusion? And yet it fools everybody.

Anticipation is the greater part of pleasure.

...in their millenial and long-lived patience they knew quite well how, in a hundred years, or a thousand years' time, or else, perhaps, tomorrow, in an hour's time, for it was all a gamble, a million to one chance, but all the same there was a chance that if they kept on shaking their chains, one day, some day, the clasps upon the shackles would part.

The clown may be the source of mirth, but - who shall make the clown laugh?