It's very difficult to be continuously charitable in a capitalistic society. You've also got to make sure that you can pay everyone who works for you.

I never sue journalists. I employ journalists. I employ too many of them. I don't sue journalists.

America, ladies and gentlemen, has done more for me financially than Britain ever has, or ever could have done.

America is an empire. I hope you know that now. All empires, by definition, are bumbling, shambolic, bullying, bureaucratic affairs, as certain of the rightness of their cause in infancy, as they are corrupted by power in their dotage.

People really do not have time to read all the newspapers in the world and all the sites that we now commonly use on the web. There is no possibility of keeping up.

I hear poets complaining: 'We face what our forebears did not face. We face TV. We face radio. We face this and that.'

When you come across real talent, it is sometimes worth allowing them to create the structure in which they choose to labor. In nine cases out of ten, by inviting them to take responsibility and control for a new venture, you will motivate them to do great things.