Politics? Boring? Politics is history on the wing! What other sphere of human activity calls forth all that is most noble in men's souls, and all that is most base? Or has such excitement? Or more vividly exposes our strengths and weaknesses? Boring? You might as well say that life itself is boring!

Their souls were contagious. ... Bloodsuckers, spiders and vampires: that was what Lenin called them.

To be brave, by definition, one has first to be afraid.

I write as well as I can. I'm a journalist at heart, so it's the story that matters.

In a way I'm almost more rueful about the notion of having a non-ideological Labour party than I am about the personality of Tony Blair.

But clever people all make one mistake. They all think everyone else is stupid. And everyone isn't stupid. They just take a bit more time, that's all.

I think it's very, very hard not to go slightly crazy if you're in the top in politics, especially if you're there for a long time.