Better to go than sit around being a terrible old bore.

Politicians can forgive almost anything in the way of abuse; they can forgive subversion, revolution, being contradicted, exposed as liars, even ridiculed, but they can never forgive being ignored.

It is my settled opinion, after some years as a political correspondent, that no one is attracted to a political career in the first place unless he is socially or emotionally crippled.

Anyone wishing to communicate with Americans should do so by e-mail, which has been specially invented for the purpose, involving neither physical proximity nor speech.

You should tell the truth as often as you can, but in such a way as people don't believe you or think that you're being funny.

Unless people are prepared to declare themselves your enemies you have to hunt around for them.

There are many Welsh who are taciturn, truthful, well formed, open minded, handsome and peaceful, even if no particular individual immediately springs to mind.

Strange how much simple wisdom there is to be found in the deformed head and unprepossessing carcase of your typical London cabbie.

The two sides of industry have traditionally always regarded each other in Britain with the greatest possible loathing, mistrust and contempt. They are both absolutely right.

History, having destroyed the religion as the opium of the people, now requires that they be given a taste of the real stuff.

The main objection to killing people as a punishment...is that killing people is wrong

It is a tragedy that many of God’s people have conformed themselves to the world and its thinking, rather than being transformed by the renewing of their minds.

Inculcating the various competing - competing, note - falsehoods of the major faiths into small children is a form of child abuse, and a scandal.

As priests uphold their people in prayer, so their people are to uphold them with prayer and love, for he cannot work without his people.

What nobody understood then is this: The only way that you achieve what you want and fulfill your dreams and become great is by demanding that sort of attention. You have to make it happen.

Ultimate influence is the ability to get the results you want from others while helping them feel genuinely good about themselves.

The Place of No Shadows, in Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine (1990) In our Universe, matter is arranged in a hierarchy of structures by successive integrations.

I've always considered the French-speaking part of Switzerland as a province of France.

I always had that desire to become a great athlete.

there never is a happy ending because nothing ever ends.

I really tend to write in retrospect.