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 Cold War was over long before it was officially declared dead.

A committee is an animal with four back legs.

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

Ideologies have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves.

Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.... There's a feeling of relief and satisfaction when you get to the end. A feeling that you have brought your family, your characters, home. Then a sort of post-natal depression and then, very quickly, the horizon of a new book. The consolation that next time I will do it better.

A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.