You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.

I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.

You don't fight to protect warships or old men. Like the book says, you fight to save your civilization. And so often it seems that civilization is composed mainly of the things women and children want.

Every animal that walks the earth, or swims, or flies is precious beyond description, something so rare and wonderful that it equals the stars or the ocean or the mind of man.

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today because if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.

On 24 October 1944 Planet Earth was following its orbit about the sun as it has obediently done for nearly five billion years.

It was the silent time before dawn, along the shores of what had been one of the most beautiful lakes in southern Africa.