The British happened to the rest of the world. Now the world happens to Britain.

History is either a moral argument with lessons for the here-and-now, or it is merely an accumulation of pointless facts.

Rude interviewers are ten a penny, and politicians have long since learned how to cope.

The only time I penetrated Tony Blair's defenses over Iraq was by keeping eye contact while telling him he never seemed to by sorry

Hard news really is hard. It sticks not in the craw but in the mind. It has an almost physical effect, causing fear, interest, laughter or shock.

Journalism is often simply the industrialisation of gossip.

One aspect of politics too little acknowledged is that besides being jolly serious and all that, it is also a hugely enjoyable game for boys.

Journalism is nine-tenths being in the right places at the right time.

My big toe alone is the size of Yorkshire.

Verbally, I'm quite fast on my feet. I could embarrass or anger most people if I wanted to.

A selfish life isn’t God’s purpose for you

The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set-up by the non-dreamers

It seemed hardly feasible that anyone could tune an oil barrel, and even less credible that the barrel could make music like nothing else in the world. She thought those sounds were magic.

She has a idiosyncrasy of being honest...I like that.

Of course, I tried to surround myself with other people like me whose dream of writing was a constant burden....

I love mirrors. They let one pass through the surface of things.

Horses are a mirror of who you are. They're emotionally dependent on you.

Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are rarely missed. In the absence of new developments, old ones may seem very impressive for quite a long while.

Charkha is an instrument of service.

An apt aphorism half kills, half immortalizes.