When I lost a race for the United States Senate, I thought the world was going to end for me politically, and 18 years later I was elected President of the United States. The biggest disappointment was that I wasn't able to communicate properly to the American people — with the proper conviction and the proper ability — where the country really stood. The pessimists, the naysayers, the change-wanters overwhelmed me, and I wasn't good enough. I wasn't articulate enough to have the country understand that we weren't in a recession, that we were in a rather booming economy in the last half of my presidency. That was a personal shortcoming, a failure on my path.

Finding out that life's not fair.

Northern Rock, and not winning the bid to take on the lottery.

The closure of Talk magazine.

Middle-class wanker.

I used to give a fantastic talk about Frankenstein and Dracula, but I’ve never been able to finish either book.

I’ve shat myself in public three times. It’s never quite as bad as you fear.

Aggression. Anger. Rudeness. Intolerance. Lack of understanding. Pretty much your average day on X.

Three mature palm trees. We restored a property in Italy that had been derelict and I needed to make it look established as quickly as I could.

All the kids I didn’t reply to who’ve written lovely letters about my books.