If you asked me if I'd rather be Speaker or a very senior minister, I'd say Speaker.

I've never been much given to little social cliques.

Fairness is not about statistical equality.

If someone is being very cheeky, it can be quite fun to deal with that situation.

For far too long the House of Commons has been run as little more than a private club by and for gentleman amateurs.

I pride myself on being courteous to people, and trying to fashion good relations.

I am seeking every day to restore faith in Parliament - to ensure we have a House of Commons which is representative, effective and reconnected to the people we serve.

I never aspired to be Speaker simply so I could say, 'I am the Speaker of the House of Commons,' and tell my children that.

I think the record shows that as Speaker, I have taken the lead in cleaning up politics.

I don't want to crawl over the entrails of past disputes.

It's a cowardly form of politics to use my spouse to beat me.

God will use anybody that will show diligence in his work

But there is one part of this that hurts. The carefree, normal part. The part of me that was lost when we first moved and that I'll never get back.

Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one.

Watching everyone root through their psyche, it just delights me. Especially R. Crumb's stuff.

I'm not naive. I know how hard it is to get along.

When you experience the light, voila, you're happy. The very nature of the light is happiness. You don't have to do anything or be anybody special.

I have a very deep concern about President Obama putting in another 21,000 troops into Afghanistan with the promise of more to come.

It's not only music. It's not only art. It's a community. It's a sense of having a place to belong.

We need to make sure that leaks of classified information, of national security secrets, needs to be rigorously pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Imagine the talented love-child of Andr Previn and Lucille Ball.