As the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.

I was very fond of Princess Diana. She used to have me over to lunch to ask my advice. I'd give her good advice, and she'd say: 'I entirely agree. Paul, you're so right.' Then she'd go and do the opposite.

The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.

I don't write huge books any more. I used to write 1,000 printed pages, but now I write short books. I did one on Napoleon, 50,000 words - enjoyed doing that. He was a baddie. I did one on Churchill, which was a bestseller in New York, I'm glad to say. 50,000 words. He was a goodie.

John Major is what he is: a man from nowhere, going nowhere, heading for a well-merited obscurity as fast as his mediocre talents can carry him.

As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.

Hell is being trapped in a night-club with the'beautiful people'and forced to live in a'luxury penthouse flat'.