I don't like the Samba; it's nonsense. With a lot of these Latin dances I can't really understand what they're all about. I like the Rumba and the Paso Doble but the others I could take or leave.

My perfect morning is spent drinking coffee, eating porridge and reading the paper at a local cafe.

I'm busier than ever and it's led to new opportunities. But I've never worried about being rich or famous - for me, it's all about the dancing.

If things don't go fantastically, you just have to deal with it.

It's great that ballroom dancing is being recognised. For many years ballroom dancers were misunderstood and other dance forms didn't want anything to do with us.

Ballroom is two people dancing together to music, touching in perfect harmony.

I like to get up and get out. Otherwise you end up kicking about, and it's easy to flick the telly on; then before you know it, it is 11 A.M. and you haven't done anything.

Sadly, it has often been said that my rear is better than my front, so thank you very much indeed.

My goal is to be the best TV presenter, the best entertainer, the best singer. I still want to be the best dancer. I want to be the best at everything I do.

Too many multi-vitamins are packaged as one size fits all, but you should be more specific about what you need. When I was competing as a dancer, I took zinc for healthy skin and immune system.

Being fit is the easiest part of being a dance professional. I used to just throw on a backpack full of rocks and run up a hill. You don't even have to go to a gym.

I asked you here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

Just because I'm insane doesn't mean I have to act all crazy.

I had heard of offices feeling like prisons, but in this case our prison felt, rather anticlimactically, like an office.

I was able to actually combine dance and acting, which was a dream come true.

For belligerent purposes, the 14th century, like the 20th, commanded a technology more sophisticated than the mental and moral capacity that guided its use.

I write about African women, that's really my topic. I have no shame or qualm in it because it's a very underrepresented topic, which is part of the reason I started to write.

When you're comfortable, you're more confident - I really believe that. If you're walking around in a dress or a pair of shoes that are uncomfortable, it reads all over you.

Art is for everybody.

What failure ofimagination had caused me to forget that life was full of other possiblities, including the possibility that eventually I would fall in love again?

I want to tell stories about Europe - I feel profoundly European, I don't feel like an American.