The old middle-class prerogative of being permanently in a most filthy temper.

On the three pigs he and his wife own: "We acquired the pigs last year. My wife was born on a pig farm and has always been very fond of pigs. Of course, they are for eating, which is why they are named Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. You wouldn’t want to eat Rufus, Marcus and Esmeralda.

The point at which beliefs meet may be more significant, more useful to contemplate, than their sources.

Rumpole, you must move with the times." "If I don't like the way the times are moving, I shall refuse to accompany them.

I don't believe in children's books. I think after you've read Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Huckleberry Finn, you're ready for anything.

I'd been told of all the things you're meant to feel when your father dies. Sudden freedom, growing up, the end of dependence, the step into the sunlight when no one is taller than you and you're in no one's shadow. I know what I felt. Lonely.

The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yoghurt.