Of course, we all have to be taxed, but once you start to earn more than £150,000, and start paying 45 per cent tax, you are penalised. It is like a witch hunt.

The first rule of management is delegation. Don't try and do everything yourself because you can't.

Whether it's cushions you only use outside in the summer, or blankets that only come out in the winter, you've always got to think of where to store them.

If you are a housewife, take pride in that.

Rearranging furniture, adding some candles, or making even small tweaks can really make the difference.

People who earn reasonable amounts are being turned into the anti-Christ. I think 45 per cent tax is a colossal amount to take off somebody, and it is taking away the incentive to earn.

Run a home like you would a small business and treat it with the same seriousness.

I grew up in a world before people had credit cards. There were no magic cards - it was all about budgeting.

A proper family diary with everyone's events and parties in it really helps organise the household.

It's cool to have a well run, comfortable and inviting home.

Divorce is the biggest drain, outside of school fees, and nobody wins. People think it is always in the woman's favour, but it is not necessarily.

Science is a little bit more than a wonderful way of modelling and predicting it's a wonderful technical abstraction. I think science is a really wonderful technical abstraction.

I hate news and information and anything that threatens to puncture the bubble of oblivion in which I live.

The reason we're bored is because we don't love anything.

I recently bought a book of free verse. For twelve dollars.

Transformation doesn't have to be deep, dark and mysterious. If you screw up, fine - laugh at yourself, learn and move on.

One hates an author that's all author.

No, that's not true. I didn't see his place that much, but he's a good kid and I had fun playing with him.

The reality is that we've seen the last of any serious price wars for a long time. I don't think any of the others could afford it, certainly not on a long-term basis.

Outer fire we need to cook. Inner fire we need to liberate. God's Fire we need to love.

Far more frightening than the thought of dying was the experience of erasure already occurring in my life. My fear of becoming someone who did not count.