The really good thing about using people who are really green is that you don't have to erase a bunch of bad habits and then put good ones in. You can just start feeding them good habits.

Scotland is a great nation, but its horses are very uncomfortable.

Get power but don't admit to it. Do it by stealth. There's a whole trend of Rhodes scholars who will be politicians around the world.

And, hey, I'm not under the illusion that everything's just going to be hunky-dory work-wise forever. I've never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow.

I do what I can to sort of just stave off the clock - walk, swim, try and smoke an electric cigarette. I mean it's all bad for you. Life is bad. We're all dying. We're all in the process of oxidizing. Everyone of us is in the process of oxidizing so to sort of interrupt one aspect of that while everything else goes on, it's a freak show.

My father told me very early on that it was a sin to worry too much.

Life is life, and one has experiences that are painful and some that are very pleasant, and one has reward and sacrifice and more reward and disappointment and joy and happiness, and it's always going to be the same.