We live a life that is often spent in crowds - parties, festivals and first nights - so it's nice to avoid them.

It's the gloomy things that need our help, if everything in the garden is sunny, why meddle?

I have derived enormous confidence from being a husband and father.

I don't think I'm an unkind person, I don't think my books are unkind, and I don't think my readers are unkind.

The moment I was introduced to my wife, Emma, at a party I thought, here she is - and 20 minutes later I told her she ought to marry me. She thought I was as mad as a rat. She wouldn't even give me her telephone number - and she wrote in her diary: "A funny little man asked me to marry him."

Plenty of friendships are sustainable through dinners and lunches, but will not stand a week away. So be careful with whom you go on holiday.

What does she do?" "She's a producer." Of course, in Los Angeles this doesn't mean much more than "she's a member of the human race.