Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path.

I think that England made a very big, historical mistake to allow itself to become the kind of terrorist capital of the world.

You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.

Actually, I don't even like parties. I would much prefer a room with four friends who sit around and have dinner. I detest nightclubs. And I don't like places where the noise is so loud you can't talk to people.

Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century.

Bin Laden was born filthy rich and died in a rich man's house, which he had painstakingly built to the highest specifications.

It's Kennedy's war, Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson got all the flak, but it's Kennedy's war.