A century ago, petroleum - what we call oil - was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.
James BuchanAlmost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader.
James BuchanLosing your capital is like losing your trousers. It is a real humiliation, and one not to be soon repeated.
James BuchanFor all their current prestige, Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza or Peshawar as romantics with little chance of more than symbolic victories, however bloody and brutal. That gives both the Middle East and the West a small and distant hope of security.
James Buchan