I never aspired to be Speaker simply so I could say, 'I am the Speaker of the House of Commons,' and tell my children that.

It is quite wrong for party conferences to be used as an excuse for the Commons not to sit. Conferences could be held at weekends.

I've never been much given to little social cliques.

One consistent thing in an otherwise inconsistent career is that I've always been passionate about parliament.

I don't want to crawl over the entrails of past disputes.

Even youngish men can acquire wisdom as time goes by.

When I first started out in politics I was, what you might describe as, a hard right Conservative.