The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story.

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.

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.

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

I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.

When I was younger, I avoided exercise or anything strenuous. I didn't even enjoy walking. As I got older, I spent so much time marking books or sitting at a desk writing that there was no room for exercise - not that I would have bothered anyway.

I look placid, you see, that's why people think I'm fine. Inside I worry a lot.