I very much wanted to be editor of the 'New Statesman!' But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy.

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 Second World War took place not so much because no one won the First, but because the Versailles Treaty did not acknowledge this truth.

There are no inevitabilities in history

Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it.

Courage is the essential element in any great public man or woman.

The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence in his capacity to produce good work-especially his first full-length book-and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blank paper, searching for the perfect sentence.