"I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a jet engine and every time I see it, it makes me cringe."

"One of my political heroes is the former head of the IRA Martin McGuinness."

"This is a horror story – a true one – about a monster who came to be president of a country."

"To write anything about Ceausescu without discussing his secret police is like Hamlet without the Prince, everybody e…"

"His tongue could not get round seemingly simple phrases like tutulor, a form of address meaning 'to everybody'. When …"

"The effect of Pacepa's defection on Ceausescu's mental state was to destabilise him even more. He became quite crazy …"

"To understand the extraordinary fact of Ceausescu's monolithic power, and the otherwise incomprehensible lack of resi…"

"For most of its history Romania has been divided, skewered and kebabed by a succession of foreign invaders and master…"

"It enjoyed the material and spiritual backing of the German Nazis and the Fascists under Mussolini, and combined Jew-…"

"NO, TOMMY, YOU STOP NOW!!! NO, LISTEN TO ME!!! YOU WERE NOT THERE-AT THE BEGINNING-OF-THAT-INTERVIEW!!! YOU-WERE-NOT-…"