We wouldn't care so much what people thought of us if we knew how seldom they did.

People would rather earn 60 grand in an area where their neighbours earn 40, than earn 80 in an area where their neighbours earn a hundred.

It has been a masterful fight-back by the big banks. We the paying public can't do anything much except admit defeat and settle back for the next set of bills. In the meantime, perhaps, we should try and think of a name for the new economic system, which certainly isn't capitalism ... The most accurate term would probably be "bankocracy".

But knowing that you had gone wrong, and knowing how you had gone wrong, were not the same thing as knowing how to put it right.

The standard personality type for a writer is a shy megalomaniac.

It's as if people used the invention of seat belts as an opportunity to take up drunk driving.

The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form of control.