Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the world.

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.

I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.

I'm an escapist kind of writer.

Women who start out as ugly ducklings don't become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.

The whole art of life is knowing the right time to say things.

Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don't put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn't say in real life.

If you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either.

Because I saw my parents relaxing in armchairs and reading and liking it, I thought it was a peaceful grown-up thing to do, and I still think that.

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic; our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.

Reading for enjoyment won't die altogether, but this Ereader device has the potential to repel those less imaginative from fiction. And that could have an undesirable domino effect.

Who says that you have to belittle others in order to feel good about yourself?

And after winter folweth grene May.

Perfection is a disease of a nation.

Personally, I'd like us to have a few more women on the 'Today' programme.

I've been to Hell. You've only read about it.

I pay attention only to what people do or say. I never pay attention to what they think.

I think having my life be as private and quiet as possible is a way in which then I can go and play characters.

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.

My uncle developed the training philosophy. His idea of good tennis training is basically quite simple: you must try to gain time.