A politician is required to listen to humbug, talk humbug, condone humbug. The most we can hope for is that we don't actually believe it.

Every island to a child is a treasure island.

I learned early and at that kitchen table that there are ways of avoiding, without guilt, the commitments of love.

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.

People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?

We live in a society which salves its conscience more by helping the interestingly unfortunate than the dull deserving.

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.