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

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

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.

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.

There was no doubt that in the early and mid-eighties that many of us in broadsheet newspapers felt that we still had a responsibility to try to protect the Royal Family or if you like protect the Monarchy from the assaults of the media.

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.