We do not read to pass the time, but to inhabit time.

A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality.

As a writer I care about America, and care about its carelessness.

Always trust strangers, it's the people you know that let you down.

Once upon a time, I thought that politics was the name we gave to our higher instincts. That was before Margaret Thatcher, who came to power when I was 11 years old.

'Reality' is a notion that journalists take for granted.

Art you can flush down the loo means nothing to me, even were the loo to be selected by Marcel Duchamp

Fans of football and fans of nationhood have a similar zeal. Read the fanzines: their contributors could find a needle-sized diss in a haystack of compliments, and their passions are fundamentalist.

Like children all over the world, by the age of 10 I'd come to believe that most of the really humane creatures were not really human at all.

The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone.

It's not a crime not to know yourself. It's not a crime to send life away. It's just a shame.

To be perfectly honest with you, I think it's reckless to love and trust another person. It's clearly foolhardy.I'd like it very much if the many daredevils who go ahead anyway, enjoyed this book.

They will find whatever button will make you dance, and dance you will, no matter how hideous the tune.

We really need to find a cure for stupidity, and fast! I've heard it's contagious...No wonder why there's so many of them.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

William Gladstone has not a single redeeming defect.

Limited minds can recognize limitations only in others.

I've always been fairly confident in my acting.

We just can't go and try to turn the clock back, that's not happening anymore. You've got to figure something else out.

You came to earth to answer a question God knew would be asked. You are the solution to a problem in your generation.

When we first went there we completely lacked confidence. Our manager told us our act was too long, and told us to drop certain numbers and concentrate on the exciting stuff. And he was right.