Hitler ... lacked the [inclination] for anything more than the occasional sensational display of emotion, in particular the great set-piece speech which mesmerized the mob and left him drained of ... energy.

I think to be shot in a mountain valley somewhere or other is altogether less glorious than crashing an airliner into a skyscraper.

The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people.

I think Americans like the practical; they like the human. And I like both those things myself, and I try and put them into my books.

The Islam of the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century was a poor thing. Nobody bothered about it. Islam was that funny sort of pure system of beliefs that depressed people in the Middle East held as their religion.

There are certain wicked people in the world that you can't deal with except by force

Good men who exercise power are really the most fascinating of all people.