James Wolfensohn

So the first thing you need to do about conflict is to prevent it, and the best way of preventing it is by dealing with the question of poverty.

If you have Palestinians who have no hope, who don't have a job, who've used up all their resources, the notion of getting rid of violence is a dream.

But when someone is on a winning horse, and everything looks wonderful, it's very hard as an outsider to persuade them something is wrong.

The poor people of the world tend to be the places that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups can recruit.

The interesting thing about debt in most cases is that you have to pay it back. So if you build an overhang of debt, it becomes more and more limiting in terms of the prospect that you have.

We have made a full frontal attack on corruption. The question is whether we can address the question of governance in developing countries and, particularly, corruption.

In a democracy, you can be right and still lose power.

My observation on most people in national governments is that they have very little interest in and very little knowledge of the multinational institutions.

I have travelled in the country enough to know that the concerns of villages in Rajasthan will be very different from the issues in the villages of Tamil Nadu. Anybody who makes a general remark about India probably doesn't know India.

Well the specific role of the World Bank is to be ready with financial assistance immediately after this emergency takes place because you need to reconnect water, you need to reconnect power, you need roads, you need bridges, and that has to be done urgently.

China never borrowed less than $3 billion a year during my tenure. They were the most significant client. They used the Bank not just for money but for the know-how.

If you enter the World Bank office in Washington, D.C., you will see written on the left wall, 'The purpose of the World Bank is to fight poverty with passion.' I had it put up there because I wanted something that unites us as an institution.