Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!

The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes.

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.

I was taught to read by my grandmother. Central to her method was a tale of unnatural love called 'The Duck and the Kangaroo'. Then, because my grandfather, Senator Gore, was blind, I was required early on to read grown-up books to him, mostly constitutional law and, of course, the Congressional Record. The later continence of my style is a miracle, considering those years of piping the additional remarks of Mr. Borah of Idaho.

I can understand companionship. I can understand bought sex in the afternoon, but I cannot understand the love affair.

There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt - until recently... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.

The behaviour of President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to not unnatural suspicions.