I'm of the establishment but anti-establishment.

9/11 changed America fundamentally, far more so than outsiders realised at the time. For Americans, it genuinely was a new Pearl Harbour: an attack on the homeland that made them feel vulnerable for the first time in 60 years.

All the things I've done are about duty and guilt: trying to do your best to better other people's lives.

I'd love to have a proper sailing boat and go around the world.

If there is a political cause, then there has to be a political solution.

I'm a solid Labour party supporter. I aspired to be a Labour MP, but it's difficult to make the leap from the Foreign Office.

The Israeli people are skeptical about the chances of a long-term peace, but if they saw it, they'd grab it. Any Israeli government that wants to be reelected should be interested in a lasting peace.

A peace agreement isn't like a fairy story. You don't live happily ever after.

There seems to be a sense in the British media that prime ministers enjoy going to war. They do not. The decision to send British soldiers into battle is the worst and most stomach-churning senior politicians have to take. It makes them wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat worrying if they have done the right thing.

You can't negotiate in public. People won't make concessions in public. They will do that in private. Like sausage making, you have to do it behind closed doors.