To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person's intellect. It becomes your default position.

I just got an honorary degree from Glasgow University, and I had to wear around very painful shoes so that I didn't laugh all the way through the ceremony because I felt like an outlaw.

I'm always represented as a bit of a class warrior - a bit Down With Men and Down With Middle-Class People. Whereas I'm actually very fond of men and am middle-class. I even went to boarding school in Perthshire.

If you went for a job interview in a Glasgow law firm, they used to ask you what school you went to. And that was a way of finding out what religion you were.

Most of the people who write to me are really clever, really engaged. They just want to say that they have read my book and liked it.

I'm terrified to get married. I'm not getting married till my gay friends can.

In my heart Im just a lucky waitress.