Well obviously the economy is critical to everything we do and we need to get the economy back in shape, the deficit down, the debt paid off, so that the economy can grow again and grow properly.

Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.

All I can say to the others is, 'Look out, we're on our way.

After years of piecemeal reform the current welfare system is complex and unfair.

We do not celebrate people who have made success out of serious hard work.

A system that was originally designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate.

Over the years the political establishment has frowned if a mainstream politician mentions marriage.

I went up to the top of the career ladder and I came down again, I am past all that.

That thing, 'You must stay together for the kids,' is out of fashion but is right. It's not arguing parents that children don't like, it is having one parent.

I am not going to go round trying to make people say 'Wow!'... I'm not going to play Hollywood lookalikes.

No I'm not a great believer in getting back over things and saying if only, or if, or buts because I don't think we actually get anywhere on that.

I really believe in melody.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

When I said clean, I meant he [Barack Obama] was bright. Like when [Donald] Trump said about Carly [Fiorina], "face" he meant "persona."

To be honest, I wrote so many drafts of this book [ The Nightingale ] and changed the characters so many times; the real surprise is that I finished the book at all.

Often people see doctrines as a checklist. Here are the following nineteen truths which you've got to believe to be a good sound Christian.

Technological 'revolutions' don't really overthrow anything - they simply append a new and dynamic market to that which went before.

Donald Trump has a grand direction. He doesn't have a grand strategy. He wants to re-establish American authority and power and to relaunch the American economy.

I like doing the mainstream, right-down-the-pike broad comedies as much as I like doing the kind of unorthodox different stuff.

Every filmmaker knows that when you make a book into a movie, the first thing you have to do is kill the book, unfortunately. You've got to recreate it.

The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.