"Nothing reminds one of impending extinction more than the growth of one’s children, for whom room must be made, and w…"

"Death has this much to be said for it: You don’t have to get out of bed for it. Wherever you happen to be They bring …"

"I of course do not believe that it is Allah who determines these things. (Salman Rushdie, commenting on my book god I…"

"“The one unforgivable sin,” she used to say, “is to be boring.”"

"It was indeed Auden – who had been a master at such a school as well as having been a pupil at one – who had said tha…"

"The conventional word that is employed to describe tyranny is “systematic.” The true essence of a dictatorship is in …"

"But a protestation of my innocence would have been, as in any inquisition, an additional proof of guilt."

"Of course I now recognize this as the working model, drawn from monotheistic religion, where love is compulsory and m…"

"I always take it for granted that sexual moralizing by public figures is a sign of hypocrisy or worse, and most usual…"

"The irruption of death into my life has enabled me to express a trifle more concretely my contempt for the false cons…"