"Were there peace and justice in the Middle East, the Arabs would no more need their tinhorn dictators than they would their corpulent princes."

"Bulls don't read. Bears read financial history. As markets fall to bits, the bears dust off the Dutch tulip mania of 1637, the Banque Royale of 1719-20, the railway speculation of the 1840s, the great crash of 1929."

"Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue."

"The west has a great deal to answer for in the Middle East, from Britain's belated empire-building after the First World War to the US and British policy that condemns modern Iraq to the material and social squalor of a half-century ago."

"The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind."

"I think the thing to do is enjoy the ride while you're on it."

"I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction."

"If you grew up in a household with a football coach who looks like a drill sergeant, you would think you would be tough."