I grew up in a very political household. My mum used to shout at the television. At Mrs. Thatcher.

Be yourself - it's the inner beauty that counts. You are your own best friend, the key to your own happiness, and as soon as you understand that - and it takes a few heartbreaks - you can be happy.

It's a bit of a headache being a perfectionist. You're never satisfied.

To keep my back from getting stiff, I have a strict regime every morning of stretching and do yoga once a week and Pilates. 'Strictly Come Dancing' in 2008 was great for my fitness.

War is good for absolutely nothing, because no matter how far and wide apart we may live, we're all the same under the skin. We all want to live, laugh and love.

I'm a romantic and will only marry for love where there's respect and compatibility. I'd like to be with someone if the right person came along. I really like male company. I like the male mind.

With age comes a greater wisdom, an ease and comfort with oneself.

I have done so many love scenes in the past that I have learned how to pull off a sexy smoulder on the dance floor.

I've never felt the need to be defined by a man.

I am simply not such a slave to my vanity, and I don't want to be, because as you get older you really have to start accepting the inevitable.

Sadly, the timing's never been right. There have been men who would have married me but I didn't feel the same, and vice versa.

True strength is knowing that you don't have to be strong every single second of the day.

And it's wrong of you to think that love leaves room for nothing else. It's possible to love something and still condescend to it.

In war the first casualty is the truth.

On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.

This be an empty world without the blues.

Put yourself out on a limb, sucka, like me!

Natural playgrounds may decrease bullying.

We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist.

When you give a man a dole you deny him his dignity, and when you deny him his dignity you rob him his destiny.