I did try being a vegan.

I think we'd be crazy to do anything to the integrity of our policy package, which is progressive, and really dealing with the key social and environmental issues that we face. We're not about to ditch our commitment to nuclear disarmament, for example, to somehow make ourselves more electable.

I think if people thought we were just like the other parties and would ditch our policies at the first moment we thought we wouldn't get a majority, then we'd become just like all the other parties.

The one thing we have that the other parties do not have is a political integrity. No one thinks you join the Green party because you're politically ambitious, or have your own agenda.

I don't think Ed Miliband has the courage of his convictions. He's scared he'll be painted by the rightwing press as a throwback to the time of the 'big state.'

We pride ourselves on our democracy, but when you see the way it actually works, I think it is worthy of contempt.

My parents are not people who would want to rock the boat. They wouldn't break the law.

My interest was in renaissance literature, looking at how men were writing for women in the 1590s, a time when many women were being taught to read but not to write.

On many issues, Jeremy Corbyn and I are in agreement.

We live in a country of grotesque inequalities.

I'm a great believer in needing things that give us some hope.

A government can't cut its way out of a recession any more than you can dig yourself out of a hole.

I come from a very conventional and non-political background.

The only newspaper in our house when I was growing up was the Daily Mail, and we would never have dreamt of discussing politics around the dinner table. So my involvement in politics came about through activism.

I joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s and protested at Greenham Common.

The models that the other parties have used where you have a very powerful leader squashing any kind of independent ideas from the grass roots is not very attractive to the electorate.

Advanced industrialised economies like ourselves cannot afford to go on growing, particularly if we want to give people in poorer countries a chance of being able to at least meet their basic needs.

I do think that if people are taking the time to think about their environmental footprint when it comes to how many flights they take, whether or not they have a 4X4, whether or not they are going to have a patio heater, then putting the question to themselves about how many kids they are going to have is a reasonable thing to do.

I've been in the Green party for a very long time - when was it, 1986 - and I joined the party because I seriously wanted the party to have influence.

We have always been a party that has had policies on everything, from education to the economy to the environment. We have always said that, if you are serious about the environment, then the policies that you need to change most are the economic policies.

Reminding oneself that not all rules are good rules and sometimes it's good to challenge them is an important part of being an effective parliamentarian.

I think the Greens are posing some of the most important questions of our time, for example how we live sustainably on a planet of finite resources and a rising population, and how do we do that in a way that doesn't exceed environmental limits and which is fair.

There are lots of things one can criticise about the European parliament, but it does work pretty well in terms of the speed with which you can vote, the fact that there's room to sit, the fact that there are offices when you arrive.

I think there is a role for non-violent direct action when democratic channels have failed.

I don't think politics just happens in Parliament. It happens on the streets and in classrooms.

In the public mind, when they think of politicians, sadly they probably tend to think of men in grey suits doing work behind closed doors at Westminster. I want to get away from the idea.

Politics is about everything we do from the moment we get up in the morning to the minute we go to bed at night. It's something everybody and anybody can be involved in.

The miserable person is easily enslaved.The cheerful person,the blissful person,cannot be enslaved.

You are creating your own hell.

Don't get attached to anything.

One day you will disappear on a funeral pyre - just into nothingness, as smoke.

Never be ashamed of your tears. Be proud that you are still natural. Be proud that you can express the inexpressible through your tears.

Eyes which have lost their tears have lost their most beautiful, their most glorious treasure.

People are not things, you cannot have ownership.

I would like marriage to disappear completely from the world, and with marriage, divorce will disappear.

The only thing that matters in life is your own opinion about yourself, nobody can destroy your dignity then, because it is not dependent on anybody's opinion.

Love is just like a breeze: it comes, but you should not close your doors to keep the breeze inside.

Love is the ultimate, the end. You love for love's own sake. It is not a means to anything else, it is its own end.

We remain unnecessarily worried. All worries are futile because that which is going to happen is going to happen.

A certain darkness is needed to see the stars.

You can become happy just by deciding to be happy.

By 'Love' people mean a certain kind of monopoly understanding a simple fact: that the moment you possess a living being you have killed him.

People say love is blind because they do not know what love is. I say unto you, only love has eyes; other than love, everything is blind.

Never sacrifice your life for anything! Sacrifice everything for life! Life is the ultimate goal.

The ego is an island in the ocean of Hell. You want to get rid of the Hell but you don't want to get rid of that island. Then there is trouble.

Life is absolutely balanced between the positive and the negative. Now it is your choice which side you want to be - in heaven or in hell.

This very moment you can drop all problems because they are your creation.

You are a great problem-creator. Just understand this and suddenly problems disappear.

Possessiveness destroys love. And they should not be possessed, because that again destroys your love.

Love needs two things: it has to be rooted in freedom and it has to know the art of trust.