I knew the facts of death before I knew the facts of life. There never was a time when I didn't see the skull beneath the skin.

History, which interprets the past to understand the present and confront the future is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species.

gossip ... was like any other commodity in the marketplace. You received it only if you had something of value to give.

Suicide is the most private and mysterious of acts, inexplicable because the chief actor is never there to explain it.

It is surely unreasonable to credit that only one small star in the immensity of the universe is capable of developing and supporting intelligent life. But we shall not get to them and they will not come to us.

A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.

I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.