History is what we bring to it, not just the events themselves, but how we interpret those events.

My greatest regret as a writer is that I've never been able to include as many jokes as I'd like.

If you spend too long trying to avoid death, you will be dead in at least one way.

But only a fool sails into combat with nature

Politics is never a victory, it's just the remorseless grinding forward of events.

By dawn he had surrendered, gratefully, to the old inertia, the product of always seeing both sides of every question.

A book unwritten is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody book that’s ever been written.