I'm pretty proud of having completed a marathon myself, so I can only imagine the pride that real athletes feel when they are picked for the Olympic or the Paralympic Games.

Separation and devolution are two completely different concepts which cannot be mixed together. One is not a stop on the way to the other.

I love hard political debate and I love beating somebody on a political point but what I'm more frustrated by is the politics where you play the man not the politics.

Scotland cannot be the only 'something for nothing' country in the world.

My Scottish Labour Party is a crusade - to fight poverty, inequality and injustice.

What I will say will not always please you, but what I say will always be honest and true and how I genuinely see it.

Telling the truth, and confronting the challenge, is what politics is about.

We shall seek debate without division or rancour.

My working life has always been wrapped up in doing my job to the best of my abilities and doing the best for my family. It is not a contest between the two.

I got a very strong sense from my mother, in particular, that we are all equal in the sight of God.

Schools are not exam factories for the rat race.

Adam never had great parents.

A married woman has the same right to control her own body as does an unmarried woman.

My manager has a car payment, so I work every night.

Your ability to stand up for your truth is a muscle, and the more you exercise it the stronger it gets.

There are some short essays that are very grave, and most contemporary novels are lighter than air.

Religion should be disentangled as much as possible from history and authority and metaphysics, and made to rest honestly on one's fine feelings, on one's indomitable optimism and trust in life.

We need to use antitrust laws. You know, we need to create real media again.

It would be impossible to learn the lessons the scriptures contain by reading them only one time through or studying selected verses in a class.

Let a man then know his worth and keep things under his feet.

Heaven's great artillery.