I've heard some duff Irish accents. The worst must be Mickey Rourke.

My mother taught me what it is to have a sense of humour; my dad, who was a headmaster, everything you need to know about hard work. My dad is the most decent man you could come across.

I'm not strong-willed enough or unkind enough... or maybe simply not wise enough to tell a journalist that a subject is out of bounds.

In my life, I have made the occasional catastrophic choice, and it's just a case of moving on and learning from it.

Spoilt is a euphemism for loved.

I spend my money on holidays and eating out, and it allows me to be generous.

It's ridiculous, but it's horrible going bald. Anyone who says it isn't is lying.

I didn't much like Las Vegas. The noise of the place and the whole 24-hour, 'let's play the slot machines all night' culture of the place just left me cold.

I thought I was God's gift to mankind and the greatest Irishman since George Best.

New Zealand is a place where you can get well.

I'd be a very easy therapist's subject.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

I knew that suffering can purify, that it's a kind of fire that can be worth enduring, but there were degrees of it to which I chose not to subject myself.

Parenting is the greatest pay it forward system on earth. We don't owe our parents anything. We owe our children everything. The same was true for our parents. The same will be true for our children.

If I wanted to be free of this unrequited longing, I would have to make peace with the past and finally let go. There was no way around it. But did I want to be free of it - and him?

It's art that's taught me to think and to write.

Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.

I started writing books for children because I could illustrate them myself and because, in my innocence, I thought they'd be easier.

Not everyone can see his dreams come true in the same way.

All I ask is that my final months be happy ones, and that I be permitted a husband who will see to my proper Christian beheading and burial.

We need good laws, but no law can change a human heart - only God can do that.