Alexa's heart jumped and skittered. She was at her favorite star's concert. And he was holding her hand!

You don't drown by falling in the water

A society is defined as much by how it comes to terms with its past as by its attitude toward the future: its memories are no less revealing than its aims.

Chic Murray once told me he fell in the street, and a woman said to him, "Did you fall?" He said, "No, I'm tryin' to break a bar of chocolate in my back pocket."

French troops arrived in Afghanistan last week, and not a minute too soon. The French are acting as advisers to the Taliban, to teach them how to surrender properly.

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.

A strongest man is the loneliest one

This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smiles. Everything was hidden away.

A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual" - find out how he feels about astrology.

I loved looking at myself when I was very photogenic, at the very beginning of my career.

Writing is a divine art, and the more I write and read the more I love it.