I write because I've always written, can't stop. I am a writing animal. The way a silk worm is a silk-producing animal.

Sometimes I dislike women, I dislike us all, because of our capacity for not-thinking when it suits us; we choose not to think when we are reaching our for happiness.

Is there any delight as great as the child's discovering ability?

It can be considered a rule that the probable duration of an Empire may be prognosticated by the degree to which its rulers believe in their own propaganda.

When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.

I wonder why do wars suddenly start and suddenly stop, and why do we Brits and you Americans get involved in some of them and not in others? Is it possible that the arms manufacturers quietly foment wars without us knowing? Dropping bombs is a very profitable business for them. Gore Vidal was talking about this the other day, and he made a lot of sense. Whenever American policy seems inscrutable, he said, remember the military-industrial complex. He's the one who should have been President.

It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person about someone very different from you.