So, what I say to people is that politics has got to be about principle and values above all. Of course, there are times when you have to make accommodations.

In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.

Hong Kong's people will get what they want, despite China's objections. Freedom invariably wins in the end.

Hong Kong represents the kind of Asia with which both West and East are comfortable... It offers, in that sense, a vision for the future of Asia.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by "unbridled" you mean unregulated.

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

I suppose I've always carried what is regarded as a bit of unnecessary baggage in Britain. I've always carried the charge that I am an intellectual in politics.

Green politics at its worst amounts to a sort of Zen fascism; less extreme, it denounces growth and seeks to stop the world so that we can all get off.

Anyone who supposed that when Margaret Thatcher left Number Ten she was going to take a Trappist vow did not know that formidable politician.

I think that if politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavor.

I think that what most surprises anybody who goes into politics from even a modestly cerebral background is the vulgarity of much of the cut and thrust of politics.

I sat near a window in our little synagogue and looked out at the large church and wondered how a statue whose face was so full of love could be worshipped by someone whose heart was so full of hate.

The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.

Digestion of words as well; I often read aloud to myself in my writing corner in the library, where no one can hear me, for the sake of better savouring the text, so as to make it all the more mine.

And though it is much to be a nobleman, it is more to be a gentleman.

Americans are good at making dance music.

That's the main thing you have to have... trust.

I'm focusing on the music, but I still got a cold library of books that I've either read or I plan on getting to.

We meet on the common ground of an uncommon age and share out our gifts of dark and light, good and bad, simple joy and not so simple sorrow.

I am a mixture of idealist and realist.

I am a hundred-percent Indian traditionalist! I am not "playing anything" - that is for the media to be able to say what I am doing.