A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

When a problem threatens to engulf you, there's nothing like irrelevant detail to keep your head above water.

The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.

Cheats, liars and criminals may resist every blandishment while respectable gentlemen have been moved to appalling treasons by watery cabbage in a departmental canteen.

In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know.

The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal.

Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.