I've lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.

I had a deprived childhood, you see. I had lots of other kids to play with and my parents bought me outdoor toys and refused to ill-treat me, so it never occurred to me to seek solitary consolation with a good book.

Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves.

History tends to change people who think they're changing it.

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.

It's not lying when you do it to officers!

When it's time to stop living, I will certainly make Death my number one choice!