The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism.

The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that 'if English was good enough for Jesus, then it's good enough for me.

I have decided to take whatever my disease can throw at me.

At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be.

I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.

I'd always somehow felt slightly as if I'd been born in the wrong country.

People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve.