Energy plus talent and you are a king, energy and no talent and you are still a prince, talent and no energy and you are a pauper

I do greatly admire Australian artists.

When I was deputy chairman I could travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh without leaving Tory land. In a two-week period I covered every constituency in which we had an MP. There were 14. Now we have only one. We appear to have given up.

When a book comes out I wonder if one person will buy it. It's agony. Of course it's stupid, but it's agony.

The worst moment of any campaign is waiting for the sun to rise on the morning of the battle

While there may not be a book in every one of us, there is so often a damned good short story.

I am currently doing about 30 charity auctions a year.