“We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.”

No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition.

Damn your principles! Stick to your party.

The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Nine-tenths of the existing books are nonsense and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.

Frank and explicit – that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others.

Little things affect little minds.

Without tact you can learn nothing.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married.

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.

Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

A writer is someone who has a one-man tent in the desert and occasionally he sees the footprint of an other writer – in the form of a review or something.

I bullshit on the phone all day with a variety of people discussing various projects, and occasionally write jokes.

I loved working with Meryl Streep twice and I’ve gotten to work with my friend Liam Neeson on several occasions.

Just as we are often moved to merriment for no other reason than that the occasion calls for seriousness, so we are correspondingly serious when invited too freely to be amused.

What I search for continuously in my art is adequate language, language I hope can stand beyond any particular occasion.

I occasionally borrow pot from my kids. They do a little weed occasionally. ‘Here, Dad’ – or more likely, ‘Dad, have you got any?’

I had the honor to meet Geraldine Ferraro on a few occasions over the years at the DNC and what struck me was how she managed to be both gutsy and graceful at the same time.