QUOTES

Jeffrey Archer told me once that both Reagan and Sinatra were friends of his. But in four years of researching my book on Sinatra, his name never came up. He's a bit of a windbag.

Kitty Kelley, controversial biographer

Tony Benn was the moderniser who went on to become a socialist terror in the minds of Middle England.

Labour MP Ken Livingstone

I have only recently got out of the habit of jumping in the back of a car and wondering why they don't move off.

Peter Mandelson on life without the trappings of ministerial office

Make sure that Noel Edmonds is never allowed past security.

Advice to Greg Dyke, the new BBC Director General, from TV writer Lucy Gannon

Last year, the hand of history was on our shoulder. It's time it felt somebody's collar.

Mark Durkan of the SDLP on the current Northern Ireland peace talks

The entire civilised world will not understand if we can't make it work.

Tony Blair on the peace talks

The British are the only European nation that likes war.

Henry Kissinger

I call tennis the McDonald's of sport - you go in, they make a quick buck out of you, and you're out.

Ex-Wimbledon tennis champion Pat Cash

It certainly made taking the dog for a walk a novelty.

Onlooker who spotted actress Nicole Kidman strip off and plunge into a Hertfordshire pond while filming

I'd be lying if I said I do not feel occasional resentment when I see people generously endowed with hair - Michael Portillo, for example - who waste it in fatuous haircuts.

Balding DJ John Peel