I adored my birth father and constantly worried that I was being disloyal to him and his schoolteacher roots if I spent too much time performing and enjoying it.

If I am able to sing again it will be through some miracle operation. There's a lot of work being done to help singers regain their voices, but in my case I actually lost vocal tissue so it's very hard for my chords to rub together and I need to replace that tissue. I remain optimistic but not tremendously so.

I am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.

I've got a good right hook.

The old fairy tales are very, very violent, and these days I think we could do with a little less of it.

Behaving like a princess is work. It's not just about looking beautiful or wearing a crown. It's more about how you are inside.

I hope that when children read my stories that they evoke images for children. I four stories can help children use their own imaginations and lead them to act the stories out or to embark on related research, they will learn more and learn to love reading more.