We're taking part in a divine comedy and we should realise that the play is always a comedy, in that we're all ultimately ridiculous.

The only redemptive feature of war is the brotherhood which it forges.

People who get on at school are the ones who play by the rules, and no one's going to get far in later life playing by the system.

Lots of us when we're children believe 'oh well, if the world knew us as we really are, they'd know what wonderful, clever, brilliant, charming people we really are.'

When I am fishing, I think quite a lot about the fish, but I also think about the book I'm writing.

As George Orwell wisely observed a generation later, the only way swiftly to end a war is to lose it.

A Tory government with a decent mandate seems the only hope of tackling the fiscal catastrophe responsibly.