It is almost always wrong that the time isn't ripe to decide something. That is always said of difficult problems.

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.

It behaves more like a tribe than a democratic institution...responding to custom rather than reason and using its own liturgy and language for the conduct of its domestic affairs.

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.

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

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.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.