I got through my teen years by being a bit of a clown.

If you've got a lot of children, I think you let the other children bring them up more and you just sort of step in and do stuff like every now and again.

Any woman who marries an Italian must accept the undeniable fact that she has also married his mother.

Once, the parental bed collapsed because all the children sat on it at once.

I sort of was good at writing essays. I was never very good at mathematics, and I was never very good at algebra. I loved science, but I wasn't sure of it.

I was often very, incredibly naughty, and if I didn't come home at tea time I used to be sent to bed without any dinner. But people used to bring me things: I was better fed in bed.

Blank House was exactly a nice empty sheet where nothing was accountable because you were so naughty that you were in Blank House.