My job is to get to the heart of a story, to find out what's really going on; to get it verified and, then, to get it out to as many people as possible as fast as.

I don't want to be involved in endless media gossip.

I wrote in the book very specifically what I wanted to write about, period, and left it at.

On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

In any war, there is a concealment of certain kinds of setbacks because it's propaganda for the enemy.

I have no time for the endless nostalgia: 'Oh gosh I used to . . . ' Life is too short; I don't have any time for sitting and saying I miss things. What's the point? Go and do something else.'

I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.