And I think that still is true of this business — which is basically research and development — that you probably spend more time in planning and training and designing for things to go wrong, and how you cope with them, than you do for things to go right.

I have now come down to a topic which is very distasteful; it is not sufficient to do a job, you have to sell it. 'Selling' to a scientist is an awkward thing to do. It's very ugly; you shouldn't have to do it. The world is supposed to be waiting, and when you do something great, they should rush out and welcome it. But the fact is everyone is busy with their own work. You must present it so well that they will set aside what they are doing, look at what you've done, read it, and come back and say, "Yes, that was good."

To completely muscle up for that writing I spent most of a year noting down and rigging around all I knew and could casually learn about real estate

Professors are writing more proposals chasing less research money, which reduces the time available for creative thinking.

I love making jam. Plum is best.

I would like to write a play which doesn’t disappoint me 20 years later.

Not reading medicine.

The lecture that I’m proudest of [reprinted in the book as “In the Oxford Madrasa”] is the one that I gave in 2016 about conservatism being in a hopeless philosophical mess.

When I’m ready I’ll transfer what I have to the computer and rewrite.

People need justice.