Music and politics are in essence about communication. Without over-stretching the analogy I do feel a sense of rhythm is important in getting your message across.

To run an effective political party you need a degree of tribalism, it's the glue that holds everyone together.

Courage is a peculiar kind of fear.

The quicker we get rid of the lobby system the better for all of us. I don't think in this day and age it is tenable to have these nods and winks, and on-the-record and off-the-record briefings.

Immigrants provide skills that we simply cannot afford to do without. They have contributed hugely to Britain's success.

Three simple words - freedom, justice and honesty. These sum up what the Liberal Democrats stand for.

Paddy Ashdown is the only party leader who's a trained killer. Although, to be fair, Mrs Thatcher was self taught.

We should have high expectations of our children, but politicians should not tell teachers how to meet them.

My favourite novel is Frederick Forsythe's Day Of The Jackal, the story about the unproven case of this apparent Englishman who was hired to assassinate De Gaulle….

The one thing we can all be sure about in politics is you are as well to expect the unexpected.

Politics is much too serious to be taken too seriously; equally, there are many aspects of it so laughable as to be lamentable.

I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don’t want to die.

It is not long before those who are obedient in service obtain command.

Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.

There is no perfect justice, just as there is no absolute in ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it.

Christianity is the very root and foundation of Western civilization.

As long as you make an identity for yourself out of pain, you cannot be free of it.

If Americans in 2100 came to see 12 meters sea-level rise as inevitable by 2200, who can even begin to fathom how the nation would respond?

There's no real alternative to what there is.

What I like most about directing is creating a world more so than anything. To me, the music is the wrapping paper on that world.

As a parent, I don't really want my child to know about all this horrible violence that people seem to be wanting to tell them every time they go to buy some candy.