"But the book could easily have been a heap of paper burning in some barrel right now, and I could look back and say, 'Well, that was 10 years of wasted life'". Wasted?
Among the heaps of papers were small signs of a life lived here: a box of cornflakes, a bottle of Gaviscon.
We are whisked through a sludge-grey morning commute, "heaps of papers waiting to be signed", and a rainy lunch at the "usual place" with "the usual bunch", followed by the slog home at 5pm with "Chinese food to go".
He was suffering from an allergy attack, and while fighting back a fit of coughing he searched through heaps of papers strewn behind his desk and handed me some charts that foretold the demise of the Republican Party, first in Texas and then nationally.
She is still in love with him, even if at times they fight over his heaps of paper.
Inside the building, there were smashed file cabinets, with heaps of paper spilling out to the hallways and a vast, defaced poster of Qaddafi.
Lord Wilson, a former cabinet secretary, described how he visited what he called a strongroom beneath his old office where he found "heaps of paper … my eyes swivelled".
