Data is what distinguishes the dilettante from the artist

Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government.

I thought men like that shot themselves.

If you do not seek to publish what you have written, then you are not a writer and you never will be.

I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.

Is it possible that my people live in such awful conditions? I tell you, Mr Wheatley, that if I had to live in conditions like that I would be a revolutionary myself.

Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance.

My father was frightened of his mother. I was frightened of my father and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.

I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien.

Golf always makes me so damned angry.

No more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.

Memphis found his smile. 'You know me, sir. I don't wear worry.

Man is incurably curious.

I don't get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I see them as symbols, and I leave them to the symbol-minded.

I feel like I'm a relentless, pragmatic, determined optimist.

Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action.

I always begin with a character or characters, and then try to think up as much action for them as possible.

A man without a heroic bent starts dying at the age of thirty.

[The public lands represent] in a sense, the breathing space of the nation.

where are the gods the gods hate us the gods have run away the gods have hidden in holes the gods are dead of the plague they rot and stink too there never were any gods there’s only death