To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist.

I became a journalist because one didn't have to specialise.

Indeed, it's futile to try and use Holy Scripture to support any political position. I deeply distrust anyone who does. Just look at what an Islamic Republic is like.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? To the ones that arise from urgent material needs.

The secular argument, or the liberal argument, is to as much as possible remove taboos so things do not become unmentionable; to let some air into the discussion.

Friends call me Hitch. Maybe it can be turned into a 900-phone number. People would pay to talk to me.

I was brought up in a very naval, military, and conservative background. My father and his friends had very typical opinions of the British middle class - lower-middle class actually - after the war. My father broke into the middle class by joining the navy. I was the first member of my family ever to go to private school or even to university. So, the armed forces had been upward mobility for him.