A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as common hatred for something.

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.

Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

People should be beautiful in every way - in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts, and in their innermost selves.

Life is given only once, and one wants to live it boldly, with full conscious and beauty.

A full heart has room for everything and empty heart has room for nothing. Who understands?

Nobody can bring you a change. You have to want to change.

I've had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I've often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

To think new thoughts you have to break the bones in your head

Labour economic stability has replaced Tory boom and bust

Ignorance is the mother of presumption

Success is not rightly measured by wealth, prestige and power. Success is measured by the yardstick of happiness.

Female ambition is such a complicated thing to play because it is an aggressive quality, and people respond very badly to women exhibiting any kind of aggression.

I write my lyrics into the computer and I hum my music into the dictaphone.

Every season something happens so I programme that in; something will happen.