I'm not on Twitter, and I don't read the papers day to day, so I am somewhat protected. There's this weird separation between your private and public persona.

Looking after a disabled child pushes you to the limits of what you can cope with... physically, emotionally. It's because there's this baby, this child that you love more than you can possibly imagine, in some way more than a normal child because you worry about them 24 hours a day. But at the same time you are so, so proud of them.

I'm definitely a Tory. My dad was a Conservative councillor, and I spent years as a child knocking on doors with him. I'm a Tory because I'm passionate about business and enterprise. But I am also a compassionate Conservative. There should always be a net through which no one should fall.

If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.

I have learned in life that the best thing you can do to create a great future for yourself is don't forget what's in front of you. And so I'm trying to do a great job at HUD.

When I was young, my mother said to me, 'Momma loves her little son.' Now, this tender endearment holds a firm meaning within my life, inside my spirit. It reminds me that in sharing love, it grows that much greater in our hearts.

I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in.