“You should not ask questions without knowledge.”

Quality is the responsibility of the top people. Its origin is in the boardroom. They are the ones who decide.

Declining productivity and quality means your unit production costs stay high but you don’t have as much to sell.

Export anything to a friendly country except American management.

Quality is pride of workmanship.

I predicted in 1950 that in five years, manufacturers the world over would be screaming for protection. It took only four years.

Rational behavior requires theory. Reactive behavior requires only reflex action.

If you don’t understand how to run an efficient operation, new machinery will just give you new problems of operation and maintenance.

American management thinks that they can just copy from Japan. But they don’t know what to copy.

I am forever learning and changing.

The big problems are where people don’t realise they have one in the first place.

Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures.

When a system is stable, telling the worker about mistakes is only tampering.

No one knows the cost of a defective product – don’t tell me you do.

You can not define being exactly on time.

Customer expectations? Nonsense. No customer ever asked for the electric light, the pneumatic tire, the VCR, or the CD.

People don’t like to make mistakes.

I shouldn’t be saying this – high treason, really – but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren’t fooled by our accent into detecting brilliance that may not really be there.

Why should I ask the wise men: Whence is my beginning? I am busy with the thought: Where will be my end?

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

I have pushed the boat out as far as I should in terms of taking on too many things. I’m getting older and I just could not take it any more. I am now monitoring myself very closely and I’m just trying not to get into that sort of state again.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

As a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I learned that I should give up being a guitar player.

Scotland should be nothing less than equal with all the other nations of the world.

What should be the aim of management? What is their job?