72 Quotes by Peter Jones

I want my kids to be polite and respectful, stand on their own two feet.

I find it very, very difficult to watch myself on TV.

I think a lot of people are getting bored of audition-based shows, along the lines of 'Strictly Come Dancing' or 'The X-Factor'. I know I am. But 'Dragons' Den' will have a longer shelf-life than all of them because it's fundamentally real in a way that other shows aren't.

People have dreams, don't they? Young people have enormous vision for their futures. I think a lot of them are realising that they won't necessarily be Robbie Williams but they might be brilliant businessmen and businesswomen.

I've played a massive and growing part in making business glamorous and even, yes, sexy.

If I'm filming 'Dragons' Den', we work flat out until 8pm, although I love seeing the weird, wonderful and plain delusional.

When I was eight, my parents saved up to send me to private school, but I found it so tough that I often escaped through the back fence to walk the four miles to my father's office in Windsor. I only lasted a few terms, but it didn't curb my ambition.

I'm 6ft 7in and I was a bit like a giraffe on the tennis court, though I did play at county level.

It was tennis that got me started in business. When I was 16 and about to embark on my A-levels, I set up a tennis academy and became one of the youngest qualified tennis coaches in the country. It did well; by the time I was 19 I was able to buy my first house.