If I were a teacher, I would recommend that all my students very hurriedly read most of Orwell's books, especially 1984 and Animal Farm, because then they'd begin to understand the world we live in.

Official truths are often powerful illusions.

It is time we recognized that the real terrorism is poverty.

During my lifetime, America has been constantly waging war against much of humanity: impoverished people mostly, in stricken places.

It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.

There isn't a war on terror, there is a war of terror.

Two increasing themes which appear to dominate our listening, reading and watching lives are propaganda and 'national security', or manufactured war.

Secretive power loathes journalists who do their job: who push back screens, peer behind façades, lift rocks. Opprobrium from on high is their badge of honour.

There is no war on terrorism; it is the great game speeded up. The difference is the rampant nature of the superpower, ensuring infinite dangers for us all.

In these surreal days, there is one truth. Nothing justified the killing of innocent people in America last week and nothing justifies the killing of innocent people anywhere else.

An elite group of less than a billion people now take more than 80 per cent of the world's wealth.

The existence of poverty is the proof of an unjust and ill-organised society, and our public charities are but the first tardy awakening in the conscience of a robber.

We best learn patience by practicing it.

Plus, I love comic writing. Nothing satisfies me more than finding a funny way to phrase something.

There are certainly delays in this year's agreed program, and we must quickly catch up. Let's not kid ourselves, there is still big waste in the public sector, and it must stop.

If we trace the history of any nation backwards into the past, we come at last to a period of myths and traditions which eventually fade away into impenetrable darkness.

I would like to thank Julius Caesar for originating my hairstyle.

Giddy grasshopper Take care...do not leap and crush These pearls of dewdrop

I have a real no-nonsense dad who taught me how to be resilient at a very young age.

When I had been a film critic for ten minutes, I treated Doris Day as a target for cheap shots. I have learned enough to say today that the woman was remarkably gifted.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.