I have to conclude that fiction is better at 'the truth' than a factual record.

My mother was a woman who was very frustrated. She had a great deal of ability, and all this energy went into me and my brother.

It is quite easy to remark the absurdities and contradictions of a country's social system from outside its borders, but very difficult if one has been brought up in it.

It is my belief...that the talents every child has, regardless of his official 'I.Q,' could stay with him through life, to enrich him and everybody else, if these talents were not regarded as commodities with a value in the success-stakes.

Capable people do not understand incapacity; clever people do not understand stupidity.

You can't be a Red if you're married to a civil servant.

All politicians are not the same. I've never felt that way. What is the same is that voters get very excited about new faces, like Clinton and Blair - and they have unrealistic expectations that the world will change overnight. A cynical old hand like myself knows that it won't.