John Key Quotes
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My mother had an incredibly strong accent - although I couldn't hear it - and she was the main person there, so I'll have learnt to speak English from her.
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Moral persuasion over a period of time makes a difference, but we shouldn't be naive to think that just because we raise it in a meeting it will make all those problems go away. It won't and it doesn't.
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It's possible to spend every waking hour here on the ninth floor and not get out of the office. And this isn't the real world in here. And contrary to public opinion, I'm not incredibly poll-driven. They are an ongoing indicator of how we are going, but I take the feedback I get on the street as being the most important.
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I engage with a lot of journalists, some of them have history and some of them don't, that's not my concern. My concern is to make sure I represent the views I want to represent on those shows.
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I have more engagement with New Zealand than people might think. Unlike the impression I have of the American president, who sits in the Oval Office and people come to them.
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The Government has to stop borrowing as much money; if we don't, quite frankly New Zealand will be downgraded and interest rates will go up for all New Zealanders.
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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.
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Sunday night I always cook if I can - if I'm home, I always cook.
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I think what happens when you are prime minister is no day is the same and every day you are under pressure. And there is always so much happening that the days just flash by and flash into weeks.
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If I had terminal cancer, I had a few weeks to live, I was in tremendous amount of pain - if they just effectively wanted to turn off the switch and legalise that by legalising euthanasia, I'd want that.
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I'm not deeply ideologically driven. I believe in good center-right politics.
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You are not going to change me and if you do, it will look like a fraud, it will be a fraud.
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I'm often at events when they're quite light-hearted social events when people would want me to kid around.
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New Zealand needs to balance its environmental responsibilities with its economic opportunities, because the risk is that if you don't do that - and you want to lead the world - then you might end up getting unintended consequences.
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I think it is only natural that people have anxiety about the economy because the economy is real. It is their job, their ability to service their mortgage and look after their family. And in the final analysis, nothing is more important than your capacity as a breadwinner or an earner to provide for those that rely on you.
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We live in a world where equality is pretty important.
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The public talk colloquially, the public's grammar's not perfect. They kid around and I don't think they overly mark me down for that. They just see me as a normal guy.
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I care about people's human rights and, as a country, we have a very proud record indeed. But I'm also realistic about what we can do... we can raise those issues with leaders and we can talk about those issues, and we do that.
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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.
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I guess I'm reasonably confident in all honesty. But I definitely don't think I'm arrogant. I'm pretty down to earth, I mean I'm genuinely down to earth.
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Let's just get a deal done then let's worry about expanding it.
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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.
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Your personality as the prime minister feeds through to what you emphasise, and what you don't, how you'll handle a situation - whether you've got the combination of intelligence or instincts to adapt and to make good decisions.
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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.