To make a love story, you need a couple of young people, but to reflect on the nature of love, you're better off with old ones. That is a fact of life and literature - and of the novel ever since it fell in love with love in the 18th century.

Were there peace and justice in the Middle East, the Arabs would no more need their tinhorn dictators than they would their corpulent princes.

Because bankers measure their self-worth in money, and pay themselves a lot of it, they think they're fine fellows and don't need to explain themselves.

If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside.

Almost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader.

The world survived the fall of the Roman empire and will no doubt outlast our own so much more splendid civilisation.

Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue.