The British secret service was staffed at one point almost entirely by alcoholic homosexuals working for the KGB

The essence of a class system is not that the privileged are conscious of their privileges, but that the deprived are conscious of their deprivations.

In the twelfth century the Basque fishermen of Biarritz used to hunt whales with deadly efficiency. When the whales sensibly moved away, the Basques chased them further and further, with the consequence that the fishermen of Biarritz discovered America before Columbus did. This is a matter for local pride but on a larger view it is not quite so stunning, since with the possible exception of the Swiss everybody discovered America before Columbus did.

Every sentence he manages to utter scatters its component parts like pond water from a verb chasing its own tail.

The thing about making a documentary in Las Vegas is there isn't much to film apart from other people making documentaries about Las Vegas.

The British hamburger thus symbolised, with savage neatness, the country's failure to provide its ordinary people with food which did anything more for them than sustain life.

I've only got a fraction of the energy I once had, but I think I probably use it better.