You cannot write down how people are good; you just know it, and cannot get away from it.

It's miraculous how much easier the computer has made my sort of work.

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

If you can't get a job as a pianist in a brothel, you become a royal reporter.

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

I've always found women more loyal, more disciplined, less neurotic, more hardworking. I just think they're perfect colleagues. Whereas, God knows, I've dealt with plenty of neurotic men.

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.