All of my political career, I've fought for the taxpayers.

The CBO does a great job on budget; they do a relatively poor job of what the coverage consequences of a healthcare plan are. Their ability - anybody's ability - to predict what human behavior is going to be, without looking at the entire construct, is difficult.

Society is now less convinced of the absolute accuracy of the criminal justice system.

I am convinced that, because the criminal justice system is run by humans, it is naturally subject to human error. There is no rational basis to believe that this same type of human error will not infect capital murder trials.

My children have gone to Catholic school... Part of their whole education is talking about the inner life and looking at your life, even though you're only 15 or 16 - thinking about your mortality, thinking about the value of your life, thinking about your obligations.

I can't say I'm sorry to see that the name 'Nigel' is dying out, but I'd be happier if it wasn't being replaced by made-up names out of TV series 'Game Of Thrones.'

I'm not a luddite. Science, computers, medicine, they're all great. But nature is context. That which we can't control. Its constant mortality and immortality is an answer to the terror of finite existence. It reassures the soul.

Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics.