I'm getting better, happier, and nicer as I grow older, so I would be terrific in a couple of hundred years time.

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.

Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the world.

In Ireland every place you visit and every person you meet has a story. And they love to tell you their stories. Everyone is interested in everything; in a land of storytellers, you will never be bored.

I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, meet great people in many lands. I have liked almost everyone I met along the way.

Of course I wanted children. Bright, gorgeous, loving children. I could almost see them.

My mother was a trained nurse, and she'd tell me that patients would fight as they were administered anaesthetic, grappling to get the gas mask off their face.