Khrushchev

"MY greatest asset, possibly, has been that, in my everyday life since I came to Britain, I have gone out of my way to meet and to get to know a lot of people. Because I have few inhibitions I have been able freely to make friends with all manner of people, people who have sought me out in my office or whom I have met at luncheons and official receptions and public dinners. Many of my friends think that I talk a lot, but I can also get others to talk. I think I proved this with Khrushchev and others equally eminent, but I didn't confine my gregariousness and natural curiosity to the top ranks. I never counted it wasted time to meet someone new, however important or unimportant he might appear to be. I believed something could always be learned from a stranger. my"

"When I look at crazy 18-year-old terrorists ready to blow themselves up, it doesn’t surprise me. Young boys aged 17 to 21 are mad. If that guy John Pocock, who I admired, had been a radical communist and said the way to get our ideals out there is to walk down the main street of Christchurch and rough a few people up, I probably would have done it. It’s fascinating to realise that. Nature has made young boys highly impressionable and easily led as cannon fodder to fight for their tribe, I suppose. Fortunately Pocock wasn’t radical enough, and Khrushchev wasn’t reading Jenny’s letters."