if there is anyone who’s telling you, “Here’s what you should do,” they are somehow lying to you

The three phrases I regard as being taboo would have to be: (1) I’ll think on it and try to do better, (2) We’re doing that, too, and (3) We need more man-hours and money first. These are the three phrases we mustn’t use at Toyota.

And it brings us to the debate that has been going on here: aid versus private sector, aid versus trade, etc. And someone stood up to say that one of the frustrating things is that it's been a simplistic debate. And that's not what the debate should be about. That's engaging in the wrong debate. The issue here is how do we get a partnership that involves government donors, the private sector and ordinary African people taking charge of their own lives? How do we combine all this?

Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.

I like moronic jobs like mowing. I like looking back and admiring the stripes I've created on the lawn.

I try to be a Sherlock Holmes of botany. It's not enough to enjoy plants – I want to know why they are wilting, to work things out.

Specialisation leads to extinction. We are learning more and more but about less and less, and one day we will know everything about nothing. There is nothing wrong with being a populist. It does not have to mean dumbing down, as people think.

Alan Bennett. He's enormously good company, very funny, generous with his time, frighteningly intelligent - and a Yorkshireman.

Losing the people I love.

Rudeness, arrogance and inability to compromise.