Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

Suppose within each book there is another book, and within every letter on every page another volume constantly unfolding; but these volumes take no space on the desk. Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place. Suppose the human skull were to become capacious, spaces opening inside it, humming chambers like beehives.

I do myself think that history is a set of skills rather than a narrative.

I think if the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set.

What is it we are hating? It goes beyond politics. I suppose that my fascination with [Margaret Thatcher] is not just with her political record but with her as a phenomenon.

In terms of essays, I would say Oliver Sacks. His breadth of hard knowledge and imagination and empathy seems to constitute the perfect mind to me.

So many years of preparation, for what was called adult life: was it for this?