John McEnroe looks as if he is serving round the edge of an imaginary building.

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

One of the virtues of the NHS... it doesn't worry you about money at the moment when you're least capable of doing anything about it.

The inevitable effect of a biographer's hindsight is to belittle the subject's foresight.

Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer.

In Italy, for the same price as a typical British hamburger meal including sweet, a builder's labourer could eat like a king - rather better in fact, because pasta dishes gain from being kept simple.

All I can do is turn a phrase until it catches the light.