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.

Most of my life I have needed more time to be on my own.

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.

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

If all power corrupts, then a doctor, who literally holds life and death in his hands, must be at particular risk.

I thought of inviting you to my other club but you know how it is. Lunching there is a useful way of reminding people that you're still alive, but the members will come up and congratulate you on the fact.

If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?