Michael Portillo

“What's extraordinary about Cobra Mist, and so much of what went on at Orford, was that the public were completely oblivious to it.”

“A wood carving of Quixote on his nag Rocinante graced my childhood home.”

“Our situations... are very different. The nature of our politics is different. I don't deny, though, that political cycles, which are observable in the United States, are sometimes observabl...”

“A parliamentary democracy that has developed its delicate balances over hundreds of years will not give up its sovereign rights.”

“'Bradshaw's' is a lovely device for the time-travelling television presenter. I just hope that people buying it aren't doing so with the intention of plotting a tour of 21st-century Europe....”

“As a presenter, you have to speak with artificial energy and enthusiasm.”

“British-built railways in India helped the British to make money and maintain order; but, as a by-product, they served to unite the country, making it ripe for independence.”

“If you are a fan of my BBC series 'Great Continental Railway Journeys,' you'll probably not be surprised to learn that one of my great aspirations is to travel on Egypt's railways.”

“I do rather rejoice when people come up to talk to me about railways.”

“The two biggest legacies of the Raj are the unification of India and the English language. Moreover, without the railways, India would not have been connected and could not have become one c...”

“British-built railways in India helped the British to make money and maintain order and, as a by-product, served to unite the country, ripe for independence.”

“No restaurant, however brilliantly situated, can give you the constantly changing views that you can see from a railway. Revolving restaurants at the tops of tall buildings try to compete, b...”

“Here in Britain, we can get a little bit snobby about American history. Yes, their history is not quite as long as ours. But it isn't all that short, either.”

“Leaving politics was a good thing. I was spared a miserable Tory government where I might have ended up as leader.”

“My grandfather, who was always keen to promote living artists, staged an unprecedented exhibition of Peploe's works at Kirkcaldy in 1928.”

“The true symbolism of every facet of 'Guernica' can only be guessed at, but we do know that it haunted Picasso.”

“Before my teens, my contemporaries were reading Tolkien and were absorbed by his works, but try as I might, I could not be drawn in, perhaps as something in me resists the epic, medieval-fee...”

“Oppositions usually say ridiculous things and must embarrassingly then ditch untenable positions.”

“My father was possessed of an extraordinary romantic idealism, an unwavering belief in certain principles. He was always talking about the past. Always. Of course, it has a powerful effect o...”

“I have that normal male thing of valuing myself according to the job I do.”