But you have read Madame Bovary?' (I'd never heard of her books.) 'No.

What is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

Lunatics are writers whose works write them.

A life can get knocked into a new orbit by a car crash, a lottery win or just a bleary-eyed consultant giving bad news in a calm voice.

I believe death is only a door. One closes, and another opens. If I were to imagine heaven, I would imagine a door opening. And he would be waiting for me there.

If war's first victim is truth, its second is clerical efficiency.

Wars are never cured, they just go into remission for a few years.