[Margaret Thatcher] assumed somehow that this would get the woman voter and all those juvenile male voters who wanted a well-regulated household with a woman who knew what she should be doing.

She is very plain. What does Henry see in her?'" "He thinks she's stupid. He finds it restful.

You don't get on by being original. You don't get on by being bright. You don't get on by being strong. You get on by being a subtle crook.

When I began to read as an adult, my first big enthusiasm was Evelyn Waugh. I read almost exclusively novelists of a generation back. I did the Russians, then I started getting more up to date.

To me, Hillary [Clinton] looks alright. She looks like the kind of woman I admire. She doesn't seem to have distorted her essential nature.

I would have been a disaster as a career politician. I would never have toed a party line.

I am very happy in second-hand bookshops; would a gardener not be happy in a garden?