I think being a mother helps keep your feet on the ground. There's very little dignity in parenthood. It's a great leveller.

Each day more coalition MPs in seats outside the South East come out against George Osborne's regional pay cut plans, and Vince Cable now claims they are dead.

I cherish the creation of public space and services, especially health, housing and the comprehensive education system which dared to give so many of us ideas 'above our station.'

I am a feminist and I have no problems being called that.

I suspect there are people in all walks of life who need to be dragged into the 21st century in terms of attitudes towards women.

The UK has a poor investment record. According to IMF data, we have come seventh out of the top seven industrialised countries since 1999.

I'd be happy to have regular face-to-face meetings at Downing Street with David Cameron to argue the case for alternative economic policies.

When I look at my daughter, who's 24, she is much more confident than I ever was and her expectations are higher. But I worry that there is a backlash brewing against progress on equality.

Ordinary people who have lots of good ideas want more than a suggestion box, and they need a union to represent that thinking.

I came from a family where joining a union was the expected thing to do. I've always believed that the relationship between an employer and an individual worker is fundamentally unequal.

I want a society that provides decent jobs for those who can work and decent security for those can't.

It turned out that it was difficult to stay cross with a man when you could see his nipples.

The brave venture anything.

The inheritance of a distinguished and noble name is a proud inheritance to him who lives worthily of it.

straightway like a bell Came low and clear The slow, sad murmur of the distant seas

I believe this earth on which we stand is but the vestibule to glorious mansions through which a moving crowd forever press.

It took me 40 years to find out that painting is not sculpture.

A universal ethos cannot be thought the property of any one culture.

To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest. Always do what you are afraid to do.

I'm actually way more funny now, because I'm hungry... If comedy comes from pain, I should be funnier now than I ever was.

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.