The world of the terminally ill is the world of neither the living nor the dead. I have watched others since I watched my father, and always with a sense of their strangeness. They sit and speak, and are spoken to, and listen, and even smile, but in spirit they have already moved away from us and there is no way we can enter their shadowy no-man’s-land.

A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.

But what do you believe? I don't just mean religion. What are you sure of?" "That once I was not and that now I am. That one day I shall no longer be.

The equally is a political theory, but no a practical politics.

Books of quotations ... afford me one of the most undemanding but satisfying forms of reading pleasure.

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more ­effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.

Authors always take rejection badly. They equate it with infanticide.