We’ve just lost our way, that’s all. But what if you could give us a chance to do better? Just one chance? One single move in the great game of history? What’s your best shot? What would you consider to be the greatest mistake in world history and, more to the point, what single thing would you do to prevent it?

If I did things for the money, I’d have done adverts in the 1980s, when I was hot enough to be offered them, and ‘Police Academy 6,’ which I was asked to write.

The worst thing about being a great power is when you’re not one any more. It takes centuries to get over it.

When the phone rings at 2.15am in the morning it’s unlikely to be heralding something pleasant. What chance is there of its being good news? None. Only someone bad would ring at such an hour. Or someone with bad news.

And through all that dreadful darkness she had remembered him. He who loved her. He who still loved her. Who would always love her.

What the matter wit’ your momma? She only know one name?’ Stone.

I think trying to be cool is the worst possible ambition – and I have never suffered from it.

A time when the miracles of technology were still virile and exciting: steam engines and flying machines, not smart phones and cosmetic surgery. When there were still wildernesses left to explore and mountains left unclimbed.

My advice to anyone adapting a novel is that once they’ve read it and learnt to understand it, then they must throw it away and never look at it again!

She spoke loudly in order to be heard above the noise of personal communitainers that were thudding and banging all around them. Some people used earphones, some didn’t, clearly believing that as many people as possible should be given the opportunity to appreciate their musical taste. That, combined with the mass leakage from the headsets, created a terrible din and even discreet private conversations had to be conducted at a yell.