For once I want to have a relationship outside the public eye.

This week the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.

I don't have a bad relationship. I'm 48 years old. I think life is too short for that. To me life is... you open the shutters you see the dogs outside you look left you look right in what a second and a half? And that's a life.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength.

If you look just at the decades after 1934 you know it's hard to point to really inspired and positive support from outside of Haiti to Haiti and much easier to point to either small-minded or downright mean-spirited policies.

Whether you are on the Right or the Left everyone can agree that there are a lot of outside influences in American politics that are not good for the system. There's just too much money.

As a politician who cherishes religious conviction in his personal sphere but regards politics as a domain belonging outside religion I believe that this view is seriously flawed.

I just feel like I'm a very lucky person to have a new life outside of politics.

On a summer night it can be lovely to sit around outside with friends after dinner and yes read poetry to each other. Keats and Yeats will never let you down but it's differently exciting to read the work of poets who are still walking around out there.

As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of old inwardly its poetry is much deeper.