“While campaigning, I got to know many high-school teachers, and let me say that the good ones are the unsung heroes of our society, and the bad ones are the gravediggers.”

Since we have literally targeted our enemies, the Pentagon assumes that, sooner or later, rogues will take out our cities, presumably from spaceships.

I’m not paranoid, no. I’m different in that I have enemies. Very real ones.

Write something, even if it’s just a suicide note.

Some of my father’s fellow West Pointers once asked him why I turned out so well, his secret in raising me. And he said, ‘I never gave him any advice, and he never asked for any.’ We agreed on nothing, but we never quarreled once.

A friend was surprised to hear me say that there was not one moment of my past that I would like to relive.

Actually, I can’t remember when I was not writing.

Until very recently, the artist was a magician who did his magic in public view but kept himself and his effects a matter of mystery.

After adolescence, if one’s life is sufficiently interesting, the desire to tell oneself stories diminishes.

Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

My father had lifelong contempt for politicians.

The behaviour of President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to not unnatural suspicions.

Remember, I’m West Point, where I was born. My father went there.

Does one ever read a politician’s books?

I know a lot of the Annapolis breed.

To get people to do needed things is the perennial hard task of government, not to mention of religion and philosophy.

The Muslim world, with its history and cultures, and indeed its different interpretations of Islam, is still little known in the West.

For GOD is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.

Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein IS the monster.

Crime is increasing, trigger happy policing. Panic is spreading, God knows where we’re heading.

So I started out for God knows where. I guess I’ll know when I get there.

What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.

There are only four people who knew what the Beatles were about anyway.

It’s an addiction and addiction is something I should know something about.