Survival...is An Infinite Capacity For Suspicion.

I Think That Most Of My Books Are Part Of Some Process Of Self-education, Often About The Places I Go To. Most Of All, They Are About The Peculiar Tension Between Institutional Loyalty And Loyalty To Oneself; The Mystery Of Patriotism, For A Brit Of My Age And Generation, Where It Runs, How It Should Be Defined, What It's Worth And What A Corrupting Force It Can Be When Misapplied. All That Stuff Is Just In Me And It Comes Out In The Characters. I Don't Mean To Preach, But I Know I Do, And I'm A Very Flawed Person. It's Quite Ridiculous.

Tyranny Is Like The Electric Wiring In An Old House. A Tyrant Dies, The New Tyrant Takes Possession, And All He Has To Do Is Drop The Switch.

The Longing We Have To Communicate Cleanly And Directly With People Is Always Obstructed By Qualifications And Often With Concern About How Our Messages Will Be Received.

The Cold War Was Over Long Before It Was Officially Declared Dead.

On One Hand We Go Like Hell For Every Terror Cell We Can Find, We Penetrate It, We Destroy It. On The Other Hand, There Is A Much Bigger Need For A Political Solution.