I pick projects according to how fascinating they are to me and it has resulted in a broad reach. My records are actually in five different sports: balloons airplanes airships gliders and sailboats.

There was endless action - not just football but sailboats tennis and other things: movement. There was endless talk - the ambassador at the head of the table laying out the prevailing wisdom but everyone else weighing in with their opinions and taking part.

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.

Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come in and sink my boats.

It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.