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

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.

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.

I sound like a church nut, but look at the role of the churches in the civil rights movement in the States. People are brought together in other ways that can become drivers of change.

The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead.

Be isolated, be ignored, be attacked, be in doubt, be frightened, but do not be silenced.

When I think of a legacy, I think of the legacy of being a mom.

Feelings change fast when you're a teenager.

Nice dress you're almost wearing. You ever think about changing professions?" -Ranger

Get my kush in California, Get my dro from Arizona

We write frankly and freely, but then we modify before we print.

Everything which is good in me should be credited to books.

I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

The effects of technology are always unpredictable. But they are not always inevitable.