Growing up, there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast.

Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies.

My efforts are focused on ensuring that CERN maintains a leading role in the fields of science, technology and education, and that it continues to be a place that unites scientists from around the world.

The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living.

The dumbing down of elementary and secondary education has made its way to the collegiate level; too many unprepared students are admitted despite their inability to do college-level work.