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If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected.

People show surprise that I have interests outside my political career. There is subtle surprise, for example, that I would be interested in a recipe.

I don't want to be seen as the kind of person who does things and then expects publicity in return.

There isn't any amount of money that could tempt me to promote something that I didn't believe in.

Making promises and then saddling yourself with a political system and a political union that means that you cannot deliver those promises, I fear, doesn't contribute to an atmosphere of trust and confidence in politics.

I demand pretty aggressive goal setting and a commitment to measured progress towards those goals because I don't like surprises. I don't even like good surprises.

When I got into politics, it was a shock. People promise all sorts of things and then never deliver.

I do not want to be a pawn in a political campaign.

I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.