The one thing you can bet is that spying is never over. Spying is like the wiring in this building: It's just a question of who takes it over and switches on the lights. It will go on and on and on.

For better or worse, I've been involved in the description of political conflict.

I happen to write by hand. I don't even type.

Wives?" she asked, interrupting him. For a moment, he had assumed she was tuning to the novel. Then he saw her waiting, suspicious eyes, so he replied cautiously, "None active," as if wives were volcanoes.

Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

I've never been able to write a book without one very strong character in my rucksack.

There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo.