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.

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

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

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

I'm a wet liberal really, and always have been. But I'm sort of an aggressive wet liberal.

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

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.