Government has got to invest more money in our NHS. The people who work in it are heroic. They do an amazing job.

The single most important thing in a child's performance is the quality of the teacher. Making sure a child spends the maximum amount of time with inspirational teachers is the most important thing.

It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning.

Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.

For a few spotty years, I was that tragic geek

Proper history teaching is being crushed under the weight of play-based pedagogy which infantilises children, teachers and our culture.

I'm a decentralizer. I believe in trusting professionals.

It's often the case that successful people invite criticism.

I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris [Johnson] cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.

I have a different starting premise from those 100 academics who are so heavily invested in the regime of low expectations and narrow horizons which they have created.

I will take all the steps necessary to give the NHS at least another £100million per week by 2020.

None of it mattered, because there was music.

For several people the challenge with the dream isn't bread & butter but the luxury.

There is a lot of underground type of fighting going on and some of it is not safe, it's pretty brutal. But it's absolutely fascinating.

Man, as long as he lives, is immortal. One minute before his death he shall be immortal. But one minute later, God wins.

You must establish and maintain the beliefs that you are... capable, committed and destined to achieve your goals.

When I'm most deeply involved in my writing, sometimes I do dream about poetry, and occasionally I wake up from a dream with a phrase that I like well enough to put it in a poem.

The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose breathes of love; O, the red rose is a falcon, And the white rose is a dove.

Let's live with that small pittance which we have; Who covets more is evermore a slave.

You can't make a living as a playwright. You can barely scrape by.

Jackie Robinson is a true legend.