Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.

I could be a bit of a pain in the arse. Since I've come out of my cancer, I must say I intend to be even more of a pain in the arse.

I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.

Isn't it true that every aristocrat wants to die?

I ought not to speak about the dead because the dead are all over the place.

The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.

Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world.