I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living.

When you are 81 years old, you don't really need a lot of the trappings of wealth.

I had one idea that never changed in my mind - that you should use your wealth to help people.

I suppose in the back of my mind I was always one of those guys who had a disdain for money. It had a value if you wanted to buy something, but if you didn't want to buy something, you didn't need it.

I'm from Pemberton, Wigan, and was born into a poor family. I grew up on a council estate. My dad was at first in the Army and then in the coal mines. My mother had four children by the time she was 23 so money was always tight.

I remember when I was young, I used to love hockey - I was selected to play for my county - and my dad said: 'Well, there's no money to be made in hockey,' and it put me off for ever.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.

We have got to cut the spending. We have got to fix Medicare and Social Security. And actually, if we don't cut spending, this country is already broke. We are going off the financial cliff: the big cliff that is going to cause a total economic collapse of America.