"What word best describes Alnwick Garden? Extraordinary, because there is nothing ordinary about it. It is unlike anything else you’ll see in the world"

"I was driving to work one morning and I heard about a shooting at The Plaza in New York. I thought about how awful it would be if someone was shot in our hotel."

"We do regular customer insight and we are seeing slightly more uncertainty in the way people are thinking about their personal finances."

"It's a pretty volatile environment."

"I thought it was important for the guests to have emotional attachments to characters,” she says. “I didn’t want them to just watch a show."

"But I discussed it with the chairman of the firm and told him I thought we would get a lot of publicity, and he said yes."

"Business itself is now the most powerful force for change in the world today, richer and faster by far than most governments."

"In a way, campaigning with The Hepatitis C Trust is business as usual. I've always felt that activism is my rent for living on this planet."

"My favourite book is Elements of Murder by John Emsley, a professor of criminology. I was delighted when I found out he was coming to the Alnwick Garden to give a lecture."

"It has something very special about it and so I am very mindful during my time that I stay true to the principles of this brand and what it stands for - in other words, a better way of doing business. This is precisely why I wanted this job"

"Shops are not just a route to sell things, they are an invitation for customers to experience our brand, and what we stand for."

"Do I believe in shops? Absolutely"

"Now, there’s so many interactive things like escape rooms – I was doing interactive 38 years before it became commonplace, so I think I was always an innovator."

"My dream bouquet would have to consist of Jude the Obscure roses and David Austin roses – they have a wonderful apricot smell"

"I was working in PR and marketing for a small chain of hotels in the North West producing brochures"

"Then I thought how interesting it would be for the people staying there. A bit scary, but they wouldn’t be able to leave – they would have to give evidence."

"I had so much interest from around the world, which proves that the murder mystery weekend idea was new. No-one else had heard of them."

"When I'm talking about reinventing the department store, I'm not talking about physical space, I'm talking about the holistic provision of services that a department store can provide."

"We’d just done a gardening weekend. It went very well and we thought we needed to do more specialist themed weekends, because at that time in the 1980s, it wasn’t really a thing."

"If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just."

"I remember very well and particularly with hindsight of the prince's huge accomplishments and yet seeing how great he was with everyone he met and how interested he was in people, and also the occasional, funny off-the-cuff remarks, which will remain with me for a long time."

"We had many funny evenings with her and him, he would come up for the carriage driving at Alnwick and he was always just game for anything and we had many laughs"

"I began work on the garden over 23 years ago and it’s been a fulltime job ever since,” the duchess tells me."

"At those times the model came under strain, John Lewis got closer to the customer. In the 1950s and 60s as the supermarkets arrived on the scene, John Lewis set out to identify human needs and fulfil them. For instance, we did a daily food delivery service to caravans and holiday homes."

"We are seeing input prices rising substantially, no doubt... but we don't yet know how much will be passed on."

"Be ballsy but always be fair, consistent and kind. I have no idea why women feel they need to act tough to succeed."

"Be good at what you do and be kind. Almost every role I have had came through recommendation"

"I realized that most of my collection is targeted at a niche market, which makes it very difficult to pitch the brand to the right people and places, especially deciding which countries to distribute the products to.”"

"Say yes to opportunities. Take the chance to get involved in additional projects that arise - don't see this as work you are not getting paid for but a new chance to learn and grow."

"I was initially inspired by the young, rebellious rock elite of our era, as I’d never seen fine controversial jewelry designed for a niche market of the young and fearless, involving weapons and illegal substances. I then realized that I did not want to provoke use of weapons through my designs, as the designs were merely for comical attraction, the same way children play with toy guns; so I decided it would be an idea to donate to specific War Funds such as War Child with each item sold.”"

"You either like people or you don’t."

"Felix is a 'downright civilian', dressed all in brown, walked to and fro about the room, searching in some bookcases with magazines and virtually doing nothing; an utterly unpleasant impression he makes - a man idling in such times.","

"“The starting point in my design process has always been a rough sketch of my imagination, I’ll then spend a lot of time with the dimensions of the product and precisely draw each design in my portfolio with the exact measurements. I’ll then send my designs to my manufacturer and he’ll send me back a preventive and the CAD files on the computer to see if I would like to go ahead with it before it is produced.”"

"Find work you love. If it doesn't feel like work it will bring you pleasure and you will be able to give what you need to succeed. If you don't love it you may be in the wrong company or sector."

"What is wrong with demanding that learning is a priority within your career"

"we were meeting all our targets to make the organisation independent of state subsidy. The pandemic hit us hard and we received £12.6 million for capital projects from the Government emergency fund."

"So if you’re looking to create a better work environment — and to attract the best people — be sure that your organization is one where “lifelong learning is celebrated and encouraged"

"We tell the story of England — 6,000 years of history. We look after it and bring it to life."

"It is an icon of continuity; it has seen everything from the Norman Conquest to the Second World War."

"People will only preserve things if they understand them. We have to explain, therefore, why things matter. One of our purposes in this regard is to conserve things to help people understand their own history."

"I would like English Heritage to be seen as a model institution for the challenge of bringing history to life"

"It was a very challenging time for that institution,’ she explains. ‘I learnt there how a charity was different from a government agency, which was invaluable for this job."

"Giving yourself permission to learn is incredibly important,”"

"There’s actually a demographic that has embraced learning from the start: millennials. Many millennial workers value professional development and learning opportunities, and they may grow frustrated with an employer if they don’t feel they are receiving adequate development opportunities"

"I can’t think of anything more shocking than the most beautifully skilled hands-on therapist becoming a manager."

"No, well, I don’t know, I have so many cousins in all directions, I don’t know what a cousin feels like."

"The Queen has never sat there and said anything that makes her miserable, has she? She’s always got on with it."

"You can’t change yesterday but you can improve today and tomorrow."