I'm sick of doing stories that make me want to drink myself into a stupor, ... We want stories to reflect the daily life for people in Baghdad – unfortunately, it’s a terrible existence.

We were the only westerners in our neighbourhood, ... Our goal was to cover the realities of the occupation on the ground and we had not got the same security concerns as, say, CNN. Maybe at some levels they don't trust Iraqis with their security. There's a part in the book where I'm trying to take CNN to a refugee camp, and they wouldn't go. And so no one sees Falluja refugees.

It is not safe to be in Baghdad, it is patently unsafe and that's true for whatever political persuasion you are. They will kill you if you are Republican, they will kill you if you are Democrat,

David and I drink a lot of rum together and I tell stories.

'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.

Wherever we go, we come up against the human, a repulsive ubiquity before which we fall into stupor and revolt, a perplexity on fire.