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.

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.

It's the perfect solution. We argue all the time. We can't stand each other. It's like we're already married.

This is reality. If [the American officials] want to believe, that's good, that will help them understand the region and be more successful in their policies.

The artist must say it without saying it.

His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.

There is not, nor should there be, an irreconcilable contrast between the individual and the collective, between the interests of an individual person and the interests of the collective.

The salt blowing off the sea makes the air feel textured and heavy.

You cannot write down how people are good; you just know it, and cannot get away from it.

Men can be divided into 2 groups: one that goes ahead and achieves something, and one that comes after and criticizes.

Almost starve, but I don’t starve because I eat very much

What labels me, negates me.