Listening to my regular favourites - Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and so on - I always feel, quite misguidedly, that nothing can be too bad if such beauty and brilliance exists in the world.

I think all good writing is a struggle. To write as well as you feel you can has to be a struggle, almost by definition, because you could always improve.

I'm a creature of habit, so I like going to boutiques, rather than larger stores, where I know I'll find something that suits me every time.

I don't agree with the whole 'my mother's my friend' approach, because you're their mum and there has to be a difference between the generations.

I know some actresses who used to be older than me who are now younger than me - I don't know how they do it.

The things you leave school knowing - some dates and long division - so much of it has been of no use to me. Schools should teach the basics of cookery, first aid, how to look after your money and how to speak foreign languages. Useful things.

It makes me upset, if not angry, when people assume that there can be no morality without a religious framework. If there's a moral framework without all that religious stuff, it's more valuable.