"I see myself as a jumped-up Paddy running a good airline that gives great fares and screws British Airways."

Michael O'Leary, head of the controversial low-cost carrier Ryanair (one of Wired magazine's "top 40 companies driving the global economy"), certainly never minces his words. He was famously quoted a couple of years ago, when asked about demands the Belgian authorities had made for the return of €3.5m in subsidies received by the airline: "We have written back to say fuck off."

Here are a few more of his gems:

"For years flying has been the preserve of rich fuckers. Now everyone can afford to fly."

"Screw the travel agent. Take the fuckers out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?"

"We don't fall all over ourselves if they... say my granny fell ill. What part of no refund don't you understand? You are not getting a refund so fuck off."

"Weber [Lufthansa's chief executive] says Germans don't like low fares. How the fuck does he know? He's never offered them any. The Germans will crawl bollock-naked over broken glass to get them."

"There is too much: 'we really admire our competitors'. All bollocks. Everyone wants to kick the shit out of everyone else. We want to beat the crap out of BA. They mean to kick the crap out of us."

"Free tickets. In a decade or so, airlines will pay travellers to distribute people around Europe. The airline industry is Tesco, is Ikea, is network TV in the way viewers watch for free and advertisers pay for access to them, is the internet in the same way that websites earn money for delivering click-through traffic to other sites."

“Business books are bullshit and are usually written by wankers.”