I tried being a mechanic and I tried catering, but I realized I had even less aptitude for semi-skilled labour than for academic work.

People in London think of London as the center of the world, whereas New Yorkers think the world ends three miles outside of Manhattan.

I tried being a mechanic and I tried catering, but I realized I had even less aptitude for semi-skilled labour than for academic work.

You know when you tell a self-deprecating story at a dinner party, everyone's laughing along with you? But then when someone else repeats that same story at another dinner party you feel they're all laughing at you?

I don't envy young Brits crossing the Atlantic to make their fortunes today.

I've become a professional failure - in order to pay the mortgage I have to remain unemployed. Luckily, a disaster always seems to befall me at exactly the right moment.

I expect that in 40 years' time I'll be writing political tomes and working for an organisation like Oxfam.