“I’m working harder now than ever before. I couldn’t turn down the BBC job because I’ve never been offered the opportunity of killing three or four people on screen before!”

I had a financial page to write in the Mail on Sunday where Id give tips on shares. I worked there for two and a half years. Nothing compares to the burst of energy felt on a newsroom floor when a big story breaks.

I’d like to be a geneticist to be honest, but there are limits to what I can do now. For my dream to come true I’d have to be 20 years old again, heading off to a blue chip university.

Making money is pretty pointless and it needs constant attention.

Lenin is an artist who has worked men, as other artists have worked marble or metals. But men are harder than stone and less malleable than iron.

Work harder than your opponent.

I worked hard as a teacher. But those are completely different career paths. And the lack of direction is why I didn’t get far enough in any of those things.

There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer’s time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of sustained creation—when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer’s time isn’t worth the paper he is not writing anything on.

I’ve learned that it’s harder to try to put on this goody two-shoes persona when that’s not me.

It is no harder for anyone to test this than it is for me to say it is false, since no one is prevented from counting teeth.

When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us.

I wanted to take up guitar because playing piano is a little harder. Carrying a keyboard around is harder, and finding a real piano is much harder, and I wanted to play live more, so I figured a guitar would be easier to carry around.