For many imaginative writers, working for the press is a fact of their life. But it's best not to like it too much.

I think it is going to take another fifty years for the report to be in. If I were to give a preliminary report, I would say that [Margaret Thatcher] wrecked this country.

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

There is so much else in the world that is more interesting [ than monarchy].

When narratives fracture, when words fail, I take consolation from the part of my life that always works: the stationery order. The mail-order stationery people supply every need from royal blue Quink to a dazzling variety of portable hard drives.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

No ruler in the history of the world has ever been able to afford a war. They're not affordable things. No prince ever says, 'This is my budget, so this is the kind of war I can have.