It is exhausting knowing that most of the time the phone rings, most of the time there's an email, most of the time there's a letter, someone wants something of you.

I like to think of myself at home in the armchair, writing, smoking and occasionally wandering down the shop.

All we have to do is listen. The Good Lord gave us two ears and only one mouth, my dear white-headed mother used to say.

I don't believe there is a God. If I were to believe in a god, l would believe in gods.

It's now very common to hear people say 'I'm rather offended by that'.

It is exhausting knowing that most of the time the phone rings, most of the time there's an email, most of the time there's a letter, someone wants something of you.

Mankind can live free in a society hemmed in by laws, but we have yet to find a historical example of mankind living free in lawless anarchy.