I'm basically a very happy person and I don't have to be anybody else.

Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake all afternoon.

The male - I have found - is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things.

I have a theory that the secret of marital happiness is simple: drink in different pubs to your other half.

Youve simply got to go on and on with your family and friends and tell them how much you love them because you never know whether theyll be there tomorrow, do you?

At home I have big vats of cabbage soup that I make to slim down.

For sheer sexiness, a man must be beautiful. Funny. yes. Clever, no.

I love the long grass coming up to meet the willows.

If you feel compelled to give a New Year's Eve party, don't invite people to arrive too early or they'll go off the boil before midnight.

People who can write a book usually do.

I was so flattered that someone wanted me to write a book, I said I would. It was published in 1969.

Always listen to your conscience. If your conscience conflicts with your faith, question everything.

[John] Kobak explained, 'The way you learn anything is that something fails, and you figure out how not to have it fail again.

The English countryside, its growth and its destruction, is a genuine and tragic theme.

Enlightenment is represented by Sri Krishna, who is said to be an avatar.

This is the ministry and its work--not to drill hearts and minds and consciences into right forms of thought and mental postures, but to guide to the living God who speaks.

I was a mixture of being incredibly old for my age and incredibly backwards. I was born quite old, but then I stopped growing. I lived with my mum and dad till I was 30.

There's the psychotic ambitious side of myself that wants a fashion line and my own network and be like a combination of Oprah and Gwen Stefani. And have a perfume. Definitely a perfume.

What's disgusting about the Dirty Harry movies is that Eastwood plays this angry tension as righteous indignation.

Technique is something that you use if you need it. Otherwise, to hell with it.

As a rule, I don't worry about genre. I just want to tell a good story, with characters that interest me and my readers.