The magic formula is there is no magic formula.

In the end, that's a blind alley - we have to get back to being able to think on our feet and react.

To be effective at selling ideas, at being a lobbyist, influencing other people, you have to be very sure of yourself.

Somewhere like Russia or China, decision-makers have far fewer constraints on acting than in more open systems.

The death of deference seems to be general at the moment, so everybody has to earn their reputation and trust all over again. You don't just get it by virtue of being a professor or a politician or anybody else.

There are always pressures on decision-makers other than just what is right or what is wrong.

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.