John Key

I used to think... that people would think badly of me for various stuff they read. But now I accept it's just part of the deluge of stuff that comes every day.

You get out of life what you put into it. I think you need a bit of luck but you also make a bit of luck. I think that if you're a pretty decent person you'll get back what you put in.

There is much more good gained from having a fully functioning financial market than there ever is not having that.

You can't base an industry solely on one person. That's a very vulnerable business strategy.

Investment is crucial. Because the truth is, you only get jobs and growth in the economy when people invest money, at their own risk, in setting up a business or expanding an existing business.

Bronagh looks after the kids and without her the family would disintegrate... there are some things you can't discuss with anyone other than your wife. There has to be a strong bond of trust.

We have been given the trust and goodwill of New Zealanders. I do not take that trust for granted, and I never will.

We are a small, open economy, highly dependent on global flows. It is inevitably a demand that dramatically alters and that is reflected in what we feel here in New Zealand. So there is at its most basic level a limit to what we can do and that is true everywhere.

I'm often at events when they're quite light-hearted social events when people would want me to kid around.

I have quite a strong sense of wanting to sort of, wanting to help others. I'm not claiming I'm a saint, but I have a genuine, genuine belief in trying to help others.

You are not going to change me and if you do, it will look like a fraud, it will be a fraud.

I've always been a glass-half-full as opposed to a glass-half-empty, and the day that changes is the day I should leave.