Of all the people expressing their mental vacuity, none has a better excuse for an empty head than the newspaperman: If he pauses to restock his brain, he invites onrushing deadlines to trample him flat. Broadcasting the contents of empty minds is what most of us do most of the time, and nobody more relentlessly than I.

Ireland really is my problem; the breaking point of the huge suppuration which all British and all European society now is

When sudden death takes a president, opportunities for new beginnings flourish among the ambitious and the tensions among such people can be dramatic, as they were when President Kennedy was killed.

Schoolteachers seemed determined to persuade me that 'classic' is a synonym for 'narcotic'.

People who say you're just as old as you feel are all wrong, fortunately.

Sending grown-ups up the wall is one of the things adolescence is all about. A few years ago it was done with rock 'n' roll music. Now at least they can do it quietly with a home computer.

You can't enjoy light verse with a heavy heart.