Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep.

Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep.

What [Margaret Thatcher] made a play for was the acquisitive: our greedy nature. She set aside other things like an identification with community, altruism. The only collective that she understood was: Rally around and slay the enemy.

Cravats grow higher, as if they mean to protect the throat. The highest cravats in public life will be worn by Citizen Antoine Saint-Just, of the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety. In the dark and harrowing days of '94, an obscene feminine inversion will appear: a thin crimson ribbon, worn round a bare white neck.

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be.

I am sure that all politicians seek the home connection with the voter. But [Margaret Thatcher] carried it to extremes.

You're only young once, they say, but doesn't it go on for a long time? More years than you can bear.