Michael Portillo

The truth is a good thing.

— Michael Portillo

A wood carving of Quixote on his nag Rocinante graced my childhood home.

— Michael Portillo

The two biggest legacies of the Raj are the unification of India and the English language. Moreover, without the railways, India would…

— Michael Portillo

The stakes are high in politics.

— Michael Portillo

What's extraordinary about Cobra Mist, and so much of what went on at Orford, was that the public were completely oblivious to…

— Michael Portillo

Wagner had a terrific understanding of politics. In 1829, he was a Marxist revolutionary who wanted to bring down the establishment. He…

— Michael Portillo

Conservatives are wary of change. We have respect for things that have lasted a long time and have been proved to work.…

— Michael Portillo

They say travel enables you to encounter your opposite. If this is true, I think I may have met mine in a…

— Michael Portillo

The true symbolism of every facet of 'Guernica' can only be guessed at, but we do know that it haunted Picasso.

— Michael Portillo

For someone like me, making a documentary - I don't kid myself. There's no influence at all. What I do is entertainment.…

— Michael Portillo

British-built railways in India helped the British to make money and maintain order and, as a by-product, served to unite the country,…

— Michael Portillo

There's much about the British Raj which I think is disreputable. It was rapacious; it was a sort of kleptocracy, and it…

— Michael Portillo

Few people have heard of John Hawkshaw, the engineer responsible for Brighton's sewers, but he also built the Severn Tunnel and parts…

— Michael Portillo

Leaving politics was a good thing. I was spared a miserable Tory government where I might have ended up as leader.

— Michael Portillo

Oppositions usually say ridiculous things and must embarrassingly then ditch untenable positions.

— Michael Portillo

I was brought up in a house where I was so aware of a life that had been broken by politics and…

— Michael Portillo

My own father was a refugee from the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, later going on to become a BBC radio…

— Michael Portillo

Here in Britain, we can get a little bit snobby about American history. Yes, their history is not quite as long as…

— Michael Portillo

I feel opera is an expression of artistic excellence. To do it is expensive, as there's a requirement for an orchestra, good…

— Michael Portillo

As a presenter, you have to speak with artificial energy and enthusiasm.

— Michael Portillo

Our situations... are very different. The nature of our politics is different. I don't deny, though, that political cycles, which are observable…

— Michael Portillo

What is it about trains that makes food taste so good? Some of my happiest memories are of prolonged lunches between St.…

— Michael Portillo

My grandfather, who was always keen to promote living artists, staged an unprecedented exhibition of Peploe's works at Kirkcaldy in 1928.

— Michael Portillo

People wear extraordinarily bright colours in India.

— Michael Portillo

Music turns the world upside down.

— Michael Portillo