I've got more than one string to my bow, and I thought I'd give this one a twang.

I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

I was quite able at the insignificant work I did in MI6, but absolutely dysfunctional in my domestic life. I had no experience of fatherhood. I had no example of marital bliss or the family unit.

Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

To possess another language, Charlemagne tells us, is to possess another soul. German is such a language. Once you have it in your head, you can go there anytime, you can close the door, you have a refuge.

What else has a journalist to do these days, after all, but report life's miseries?

When it's going well [writing] goes terribly fast. It isn't at all surprising to write a chapter in a day, which for me is about twenty-two pages. When it's going badly, it isn't really going badly; it's just the beginning.