In the end, that's a blind alley - we have to get back to being able to think on our feet and react.

People think there's a single solution to complex problems, and the solution is often making an enemy of a group of people - pulling back and rejecting the other.

I keep coming back to the phrase "Dance with the system" - not just march onwards no matter what happens.

Floundering around, learning by doing but also by failing, is not only good but inevitable.

If you were disabled in Russia, you had to re-register every year, and it took up to six months to re-register, so people who lost limbs in Afghanistan had to prove that their leg hadn't grown back.

Somewhere like Russia or China, decision-makers have far fewer constraints on acting than in more open systems.

There are always pressures on decision-makers other than just what is right or what is wrong.

Lots of people in the open system are very determined to try and strengthen evidence-based policy.

To be effective at selling ideas, at being a lobbyist, influencing other people, you have to be very sure of yourself.

I see [activists] getting really angry that people won't just do what the evidence tells them, and that's not very helpful. You need to actually think why that is.

There's no point in just hankering for the big trade unions of the 1950s or '60s.

It’s the journey, not the destination, but that doesn’t make sense until you get there.

Work banishes those three great evils boredom vice and poverty.

A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.

Take away the ability of an intelligent, principled, hard-working mind to get it wrong, and you take away the whole thing.

My ancient history teacher, Millie Lloyd, should have worn a medal for her performance at the battle of Thermopylae. She was excited and we were excited.

I'm not here now. This isn't happening. You're just visiting a dream of mine.

Music for me is this thing that's sort of saved my life over the course of my whole life, whether it be writing songs or listening to other people's stuff.

It's hard to keep on being civil when they ask you such annoying questions.

Ninety percent of my thoughts are, "How will this work on the radio?"

At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials.