Michael Portillo Quotes

If you look at the British royal family and take away the scandals and the goofy stuff that's going on, people love to have this king to look up to - the royals are like celebrities.

Queen Victoria, one of our more frumpy Queen's. They're all frumpy aren't they? Because it's a bad idea when cousin's marry.

Though I am not imperial, and though Elizabeth may not deserve it, the Queen of England will easily deserve to have an emperor's son to marry.

Celebrity these days is completely for sale; it's not remotely mysterious. But there's something that remains glamorous and mysterious about royalty.

You are a member of the British royal family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals.

There is something about Prince William and Prince Harry that brings real modernity to the British royal family. They are also very open, human, and kind, and this is what I have tried to capture in the pictures I have taken of them as well as in my pictures of Prince William and Catherine.

Being born into the Royal Family is like being born into a mental asylum. Marrying into it is not something to be taken lightly.

My children are not royal; they just happen to have the Queen for their aunt.

Bringing anyone into royal circles is a pretty tough act. Especially in the British royal family, which is scrutinized by the press as no one's been.

I became completely obsessed with the Royal family, or at least the psychology behind them.

I've always been pretty indifferent towards the royal family. I went on a school trip once to Buckingham Palace, and all I can remember is that it was really boring.

William's marriage to Kate Middleton showed that social class, which seemed so important when Prince Charles was looking for a bride in the Eighties, is no longer an issue.

I am very pro-royal. Britain without them would be a sadder place.

The bump I was trying to hide could be the future king of England.

I'm not a royal family watcher.

I'm not a princess. My mother is, not I. I am the niece of a head of state. And with this status, I have some representational duties - nothing very constraining or very exceptional.

I am fascinated by the Royal Family because they are shrouded in mystique, and the Queen, and to a certain extent William, represent fabulous blank canvases. I find the Prince of Wales less fascinating because he spills the beans and we know too much about him.

Do you seriously expect me to be the first Prince of Wales in history not to have a mistress?

The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together.

I like all the families in the U.K. But what I like about the idea of the royal family is... they seem like they're well educated and there's something admirable about them. And the Queen... she reminds me of my grandma.

In the museum, next to the dinosaurs---that’s where the monarchy should go.

With a good education and a solid childhood, Marie-Antoinette might have become one of the most admired women in Europe. As it was, the empress paid no attention to her youngest daughter until an accident of nuptial politics made the girl a candidate to marry the French dauphin.

There's no more private family than the royal family. People who can really only be themselves with each other. The rest of us just spend all our time fascinated by them.

I think everyone in the United States has such admiration for the British royal family, and with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, there's a whole new interest in the younger generation.

Traditionally, royal females who have not had the luck to become queens regnant have been granted very limited roles. They have been expected to look pretty, be discreet, do charitable good deeds, and - if married to princes or kings - be quietly supportive and, above all, fertile.