At Baalbek Nuts I bought pistachios from the Lebanese owners, who answered my request for their thoughts on the war with the typically Lebanese response of no problem. It's a lie, as we all knew.

It's a journalist's job to be a witness to history. We're not there to worry about ourselves. We're there to try and get as near as we can, in an imperfect world, to the truth and get the truth out.

Tanks come in two forms: the dangerous, deadly kind and the "liberating" kind.

The Syrian army is tired of corruption. It is tired of party nepotism. It is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war.

Refuse to accept the narrative of history laid down by presidents, prime ministers, generals and journalists.

Everyone outside the Roman Empire was called a barbarian. Everyone outside Obama’s empire is called a terrorist.

War is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.

And it's true, you hear things in Damascus and, after a few hours, the human double-take stops operating.

Clinton impressed Assad: a young man who appeared to want to be neutral in the Arab-Israeli dispute - an illusion of course, but that's what Assad thought.

When I saw the pictures of New York without the World Trade Center, New York looked like a shadow of itself.

At the end of the day, bin Laden's interest is not Washington and New York, it's the Middle East. He wants Saudi Arabia. He wants to get rid of the House of Saud.

A cute outfit can really make your day. If I wear something I look good in, my mood just goes way up.

I remember being in China and realising how irrelevant not even Britain is, but also Europe. We're just another remote country that hardly impinges on some places at all.

It's fun to be on the edge. I think you do your best work when you take chances, when you're not safe, when you're not in the middle of the road, at least for me, anyway.

They play it safe, are quick to assassinate what they do not understand. They move in packs, ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another.

People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.

Our technological infrastructure alienates us from each other. No need to form a workplace community, everybody there will be out in a year or two, and so will you, looking for a better place.

The warrior of Light perseveres in his desire, but knows he must wait for the best moment.

Everything that exceeds the bounds of moderation has an unstable foundation.

No matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it.