He didn't know the right people. That's all a police record means in this rotten crime-ridden country.

I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings.

Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.

Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form inself on the edge of consciousness.

I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble.

It was a smooth silvery voice that matched her hair. It had a tiny tinkle in it, like bells in a doll's house. I thought that was silly as soon as I thought of it.

You're broke, eh?"I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.

Anything plus management amounts to success

It's no use trying to be different than you are.

Simple and intuitive design is what inspires and drives me.

I've always said, not giving too much away, I'm a believer in having all your stars on the pitch.

You have to go wholeheartedly into anything in order to achieve anything worth having.

Wars are fought on objectives, not on timetable, and that's why I've been so insistent upon not allowing ourselves to have policy driven by time table, but by objective.

No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology.

It is possible to tell a customer "no", and have the customer thank you for doing it

I moved into a nice houseboat in Little Venice when I was 15 years old. I found a girlfriend called Monday and a houseboat called Friday, so I had the week sewn up.

I say, 'Why not' to everything.