“I don’t remember one thing I learned in school.”

I like to make them squirm.

The system set up by F.I.D.E. … Insures that there will always be a Russian world champion… The Russians arranged it that way.

All I ever want to do is just play chess.

Every chess game is like taking a five-hour final exam.

If we accuse Trump of being a liar, he won’t just say ‘I never said that’ or just ignore it and go on to the next thing.

It’s little quirks like this that could make life difficult for a chess machine.

The white people should go back to Europe, and the country should be returned to the American Indians. This is the future I would like to see for the so-called United States.

I don’t recommend trying to cram a lot of long opening-move variations into your head.

Steinitz claimed that the King was well able to take care of itself, and ought not to be attacked until one had some other positional advantage. He understood more about the use of squares than Morphy and contributed a great deal more to chess theory.

Our mind is all we’ve got. Not that it won’t lead us astray sometimes, but we still have to analyze things out within ourselves.

I hope the Icelandic government grants me political asylum.

I don’t care! I don’t have to show anybody my games just because they’re a big shot!

They spoke about Capablanca with awe. I have never seen people speak about any chess player like that, before or since.

I add status to any tournament I attend.

A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great Chess player

Romance is an illusion. Well, romance is not a complete illusion, but it’s ephemeral. It does not last.

Art also has this element. Our job is to remind us that there are more contexts than the one that we’re in – the one that we think is reality.

There is only one way in which one can endure man’s inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one’s own life, to exemplify man’s humanity to man.

I’m always afraid someone’s going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, ‘Back to North London’.

This seems quite good, a bit familiar.’ Then I realise … It’s one of my movies. It’s a pretty odd feeling.

The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy.

This is one of the magical things about drawing – it gives us almost visionary moments of connectedness.

But most of the ones I’ve ever met have always been surprisingly normal, and I’ve enjoyed that.

The one thing I hate about other managers is waffle that is nowhere near the truth. I would never conduct myself like that.