In the military I could exercise the power of being automatically respected because of the medals on my chest not because I had done anything right at the moment to earn that respect. This is pretty nice. It's also a psychological trap that can stop one's growth and allow one to get away with just plain bad behavior.

Second there are two problems with respect to mobile homes in particular. One is we obviously don't want to put them in a flood plain because if there's another flood you're going to lose the mobile home.

My government you can be assured will be less focused on personalities. It is about treating people with respect. I think complaining about the community not being able to see the wisdom of our ideas is the wrong approach.

I remember the evacuee children from towns and cities throwing stones at the farm animals. When we explained that if you did that you wouldn't have any milk meat or eggs they soon learned to respect the animals.

In England with all due respect we have some of the plainest actresses in the entire world as our greatest.

Science may eventually explain the world of How. The ultimate world of Why may remain for contemplation philosophy religion.

I don't practise any religion but I am deeply interested in the answers that mankind has come up with to explain the human situation.

When I was almost 13 I was ripe for religion. I was actually just plain ripe.

It's not surprising then they get bitter they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Once you accept the existence of God - however you define him however you explain your relationship to him - then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things.

The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it.

Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.

Why should conservationists have a positive interest in... farming? There are lots of reasons but the plainest is: Conservationists eat.

Say and do something positive that will help the situation it doesn't take any brains to complain.

I wanted the feel in these books to be like an epic fantasy with kings queens dukes and court politics but of course like what I was explaining before about making the science make sense you have to make the politics make sense too.

There's a rule of thumb in politics. If you're at a point where you're complaining about the other guy being mean and unfair and uncivil that's probably a sign that you're losing.

It is our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them and have the honesty to say to people 'There are no easy solutions here.'