Truman Capote has made lying an art. A minor art.

I was the first - I was extremely unpopular with the establishment of the United States, particularly the New York Times was always an enemy, and Time magazine, off and on, the enemy, because I said things and took positions that other people didn't do.

We must always remember that the police are recruited from the criminal classes.

I have never been particularly impressed by the self centered musings of my fellow writers.

I have no television to go on so I get a lot of writing done. That's my substitute for television.

The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie answers questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.

Most writers are middle-class and are the children of doctors or lawyers.