How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.

A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.

The truth is I don't have any problem with journalists - I count some of them as friends - also some of my heroes are journalists I'm a big fan of Robert Fisk - great people or crazy people who are prepared to stand up for what's right.

I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.

If you are a reliable honest journalist sources will open up and trust you and share good information.

Any journalist worth his or her salt wouldn't trust me.

We have to compete in a universe of 200 networks so we have to carve out our own niche and to me that niche is just basic shoe-leather journalism with some good journalists at the helm you can trust as presenters.

I don't trust a lot of journalists.

The desire to become a journalist came really because I very much like living abroad and like to travel and wanted to be paid for it.

Of all possible subjects travel is the most difficult for an artist as it is the easiest for a journalist.

A veteran journalist has never had time to think twice before he writes.

When I started out as a music journalist at the end of the 1980s it was generally assumed that we were living through the lamest music era the world would ever see. But those were also the years when hip-hop exploded beatbox disco soared indie rock took off and new wave invented a language of teen angst.

It's a little bit in the genes because my brother is a journalist and my father was a sports writer.

In emerging democracies like Russia in authoritarian states like Iran or even Yugoslavia journalists play a vital role in civil society. In fact they form the very basis of those new democracies and civil societies.

I mean Britain is a country of successful Muslim businesspeople teachers and educators journalists. So we have to say very strongly that the two million plus Muslims in Britain the vast bulk of them make a huge contribution to our society and they actually make it the vibrant society it is.

The smarter the journalists are the better off society is. For to a degree people read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher the better the student body.

This much we know: Journalism is not a precise science. It's on its best day is a crude art. We make mistakes I make mistakes. With more than 50 years as a journalist I have at least had the opportunity to blow more stories make more mistakes than maybe anybody in television.