There has been a genuine willingness from many in the arts sector to try to understand people who are not within the arts elite.

At the same time women are putting on the headscarf, they are also going to work, to education, increasingly vocal in the media - and this is the confusing thing about Muslim women in the West,. They are becoming Westernized at the same time as they are adopting their religious identity more strongly.

I realized very quickly that the main thing that the left was not in favor of was free speech - that there was an intolerance about different ideas and opinions.

We need to have a view that culture has a value in itself, not just in terms of a social and economic value.

Too often, it is presumed that young people will only like art that they can immediately relate to. Working-class students may be steered towards popular culture like hip-hop, new media and film on the basis that they will find older art forms such as opera or ballet irrelevant.

We want young people to get every opportunity to experience culture, to understand it and to think it is for them.

I think that there is a tendency to underestimate the public.

Public art is a unique type of art. It's very different to gallery art because it is something that we pass by every day and it inevitably creates a lot of discussion in a way that gallery art does not.

Why is London particularly attractive for artists? It's partly this incredible concentration of organizations that have a long history but also the spontaneous and informal culture and the opportunities in London.

The 'Shoreditchification' of certain areas, although it's seen as a negative by some, has actually been very positive for parts of London.

But I do love working for Boris because he never stops. He's always fizzing with good ideas, and when you are looking after culture, that is important. He's quite ambitious for London.

You'd be surprised. A number of developers recognize that having a cultural activity in their space brings kudos. People like the idea of being near to creatives.

A hero usually rises above the ordinary because he or she exemplifies some virtue that everyone can recognize.

Britain has lots of celebrities who are well known and admired today, but we don't seem to have any heroes.

I don't think a good education should be confined to a privileged few.

It's important that we challenge the culture of low expectations. You need to believe every child can do well.

I think that in the past there has been a kind of cultural resistance to Latin because it's associated with elitism.

Oxford is a very special place. You really sensed the value of a good education there.

Barriers today are largely class-based - income, networks, education. And those affect many white people as well.

If black artists can win major commissions and international acclaim, why do we assume that to be black is always to be marginal, or in need of special support? We have to recognize how diversity initiatives can make black artists feel ghettoized and, as some cultural commentators have argued, bear 'the burden of representation.'

London centre has a wealth of creative activity but there are parts of London where there isn't a cinema or where library provision is quite weak.

There are people working in arts organizations who feel that in recent years there has been a sacrifice of quality and excellence in favor of ticking the right boxes and using the right buzz words because that's what their masters tell them.

I've argued for a much less instrumentalist politicized approach, freeing up the arts and enabling them to deliver high-quality projects.

The creative sector is incredibly important to London's economy in a number of different ways.