I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them. I firmly believe there are books whose greatness actually enables you to live, to do something. And sometimes, human beings need story and narrative more than they need nourishment and food.

A lot of very beautiful women can be a pain because all they're thinking about is how they look.

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here?

It's such a cold night and it's the only time I've actively been grateful for menopause. I've been entirely comfortable.

Don't ever go on a diet. Just don't. Walk away. Diets are the spawn of Satan.

I want a different world. One where I don't wake up thinking I'm so lucky to be able to feed my daughter, and able to give people a clean drink of water. I don't want images of starving babies at the breast in my mind. I want that to change. And if I want that, I had better do something about it.