In America, the policeman is a working-class hero. In England, the policeman is a working-class traitor.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without the thorn.

Money doesn't mind if we say it's evil, it goes from strength to strength. It's a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy.

Jane was my wicked stepmother: she was generous, affectionate and resourceful; she salvaged my schooling and I owe her an unknowable debt for that. One flaw: sometimes, early on, she would tell me things designed to make me think less of my mother, and I would wave her away, saying, 'Jane, this just backfires and makes me think less of you.'

Novelists don't age as quickly as philosophers, who often face professional senility in their late twenties.