In the 66 years that I have been alive, there has not been one hour, of one day, of one month, of one year, when there has not been a threat aimed at us.

The stubbornness of a weak man should never be underestimated. The weak tend to be very stubborn when they've decided on something.

It is cold at six-forty in the morning on a March day in Paris, and seems even colder when a man is about to be executed by firing squad.

On Foreign Secretary Robin Cook: If a man cannot keep a measly affair secret, what is he doing in charge of the Intelligence Service?

The Internet offers authors and their readers a new diversity of opportunities and freedom.

The British have always coped without becoming a dictatorship.

As ever with modern Britain, we are let down by a vast, over-manned, over-funded, hidebound, obstructive, box-ticking and incompetent bureaucracy.

… Shannon’s fingers itched to smash the man in the face. Inside his head he kept telling himself, Keep cool, baby, absolutely cool.

The narrator, I think, must succeed in frightening himself before he can think of frightening his reader…

I've been accused of riding roughshod over others' emotions, and I admit, when I feel a friend is being over-indulgent, my patience is in short supply.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

I think the most important part of this now is, let's say the American people, but the polls show that the majority now don't want a war, anywhere, not only against Syria.

I dont want to tell my dreams, I want to show them!

And old affront will stir the heart Through years of rankling pain.

Prohibiting a visible religious sign, which isn't a manifestation of militancy, would look like a fight against religions.

Lords are lordliest in their wine.

I never killed anyone because it wasn't necessary. I could have killed.