Michael Portillo

I worry how I look.

— Michael Portillo

Personal responsibility matters.

— Michael Portillo

The truth is a good thing.

— Michael Portillo

The stakes are high in politics.

— Michael Portillo

Music turns the world upside down.

— Michael Portillo

Politics hasn't changed, but I've changed.

— Michael Portillo

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

— Michael Portillo

People wear extraordinarily bright colours in India.

— Michael Portillo

Sleep deprivation over quite a short period of time can make you paranoid.

— Michael Portillo

I don't mind being a bit of a showman.

— Michael Portillo

There's only one person who knows me - and that's me.

— Michael Portillo

I'm a man with a great political future behind me.

— Michael Portillo

For all those who experienced it, the Spanish Civil War was devastating.

— Michael Portillo

A vocation is a noble thing and not to be subverted by the whims of politicians.

— Michael Portillo

It's a dilemma for every modern parent - how to keep children safe on social media without monitoring their every post.

— Michael Portillo

To be in the media is to be in the wings. Being in politics is being on the stage.

— Michael Portillo

If life is a soap opera you shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get to the final credits.

— Michael Portillo

I have liked trains since I was a boy, although I was never a train-spotter.

— Michael Portillo

I will say what I want to say. I had some homosexual experiences as a young person.

— Michael Portillo

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

— 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

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

— 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

From Brighton to Bradford, from Suffolk to Somerset, I have explored some remarkable buildings and structures that, in different ways, have helped…

— Michael Portillo

If you are a fan of my BBC series 'Great Continental Railway Journeys,' you'll probably not be surprised to learn that one…

— Michael Portillo

No restaurant, however brilliantly situated, can give you the constantly changing views that you can see from a railway. Revolving restaurants at…

— Michael Portillo

In some of the estates, there are generations of people who have been without work, so the environment and the example passed…

— Michael Portillo

I hope I succeed in demonstrating that you may equally find compelling and significant narratives - stories that alter or add to…

— Michael Portillo

If a prince marries a foreign princess, one to the manner born, he is being snobbish and old-fashioned. If he chooses a…

— 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

If the Tories and Lib Dems fought together, they'd keep their ministerial offices and limousines, and continue to do the right things…

— Michael Portillo

Travelling the railways of Europe with a century-old guidebook can be disconcerting: fares, food, and drink seem shockingly expensive compared with what…

— Michael Portillo

Like so many other grammar schools that flourished in Britain before they were abolished through a mix of ideology and political folly,…

— Michael Portillo

I am better at politics than I am at anything else.

— Michael Portillo

The late 1960s was another time and another world.

— Michael Portillo

Again and again, people get more conservative as they get older.

— Michael Portillo

I have Spanish ancestry and, indeed, speak the language, up to a point.

— Michael Portillo

I do rather rejoice when people come up to talk to me about railways.

— Michael Portillo

I have that normal male thing of valuing myself according to the job I do.

— Michael Portillo

I look back on my schooldays with a warm glow of nostalgia.

— Michael Portillo