Arafat contradicts himself every five minutes. He always plays the double-cross, lies even if you ask him what time it is.

Why do the people humiliate themselves by voting? I didn't vote because I have dignity. If I had closed my nose and voted for one of them, I would spit on my own face.

I don't want to hear about my death.

I met Indira Gandhi in her office in the government palace. The same office that had been her father's - large, cold and plain. She was sitting, small and slender, behind a bare desk. When I entered, she got up and came forward to give me her hand, then sat down again and cut the preliminaries short by fixing me with a gaze that meant: Go ahead with the first question, don't waste time, I really have no time to waste.

Life is such an effort, Child. It's a war that is renewed each day, and its moments of joy are brief parentheses for which you pay a cruel price.

Glory is a heavy burden, a murdering poison, and to bear it is an art. And to have that art is rare.

Sometimes the dead are more alive than the living. And they can kill the living.