Roman Abramovich

In my personal opinion, Russia is no less democratic than it used to be. It is a democratic country. It is democratic enough.

If I had to think where I could live if not Moscow, London would be my first choice and second would be New York.

[on money] It cannot buy you happiness. Some independence, yes.

When I started to make more or less serious money – for those times – then, of course, I wanted to show everyone that life is different: it’s a new kind of life; we are earning this money. We wanted to pay taxes and live honestly.

It’s a new endeavour for me. I’ve never run a territory. I’ve never talked publicly to people. I’ve got to try it just to see whether I like it.

The goal is to win. It’s not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this (buying Chelsea football club). I don’t want to throw my money away, but it’s really about having fun and that means success and trophies.

It’s not just about being better. It’s about being different. You need to give people a reason to choose your business.

No one should buy on reputation alone. They should come and see it and inspect it, feel it and touch it.

A big business never becomes big by being a narrow society looking after only the interests of its organization and stockholders.

I remember flying in, driving down 101 in a cab, and passing by all these tech companies like Yahoo! I remember thinking, ‘Maybe someday we’ll build a company. This probably isn’t it, but one day we will.’

The way out of the depression is to start spending and doing things.

A low wage business is always insecure.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

Investors are visionaries in some respects – they look beyond the present.

I think I’ve got the best staff in television.

As betting at the race ring adds neither strength nor speed to the horse, so the exchange of shares in the stock market adds no capital to business, no increase in the production and no purchasing power to the market.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine.

I really don’t retain information – by the time I arrive wherever I’m going, I already forget what it is that I wanted to say.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.

I have had the top people in the world into One Hyde Park, and they have seen everything and they say there is nothing quite like this.

Success cannot come from standstill men. Methods change and men must change with them.