To read a paper book is another experience: you can do it on a ship, on the branch of a tree, on your bed, even if there is a blackout.

But laughter is weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh.

Beauty is boring because it is predictable.

I love the secrecy of writing fiction. When I write a novel, I don't tell anybody what I'm doing. I'm living in my private world. And it's a great sensation.

History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal power - bypassing parliaments and constitutions, distributing favours to their minions, and conflating their own desires with the interests of the community.

Yes, I know, it's not the truth, but in a great history little truths can be altered so that the greater truth emerges.

Two cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.