The De Bernières were very military. I broke the military tradition but I was terribly proud of my father being a soldier.

We have roots that grow towards each other underground. And when all the pretty blossom has fallen from our branches we find that we are one tree and not two.

Symmetry is for God, not for us.

When you have children it completely shifts your focus; they become the most passionate love of your life...

In reality the world is as full of bad mothers as it is of bad fathers, and it is not the motherless children who become delinquent but the fatherless ones.

Family law is institutionally anti-male. I've been lobbying MPs, and I'm not going to give up campaigning for equality until I get equality.

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides.

The trouble with fulfilling your ambitions is you think you will be transformed into some sort of archangel and you're not. You still have to wash your socks.

The real index of civilization is when people are kinder than they need to be.

The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry.

People taking photographs of their meals are not critics; they are from the United States.

Romantic relationships are the least interesting thing for me to write about. I'm 45, and that's not the most interesting thing in my life anymore.

He's been dead for so many years, but I'm still trying to impress him. That's what gave me my drive. 'Look at me, Dad, I've succeeded.'

The aim of life is to be fully born, though its tragedy is that most of us die before we are thus born.

There are people who are younger than I who are more uptight than I am. It's not necessarily an age thing. I mean nobody is offering me 20-year old leads any more.

The bow always strung ... will not do.

My life is full of broken halos.

Some of us cling to our curses if we haven't anything better to cling to!

The only real source of historical information about pre-Islamic Mecca and the circumstances of the Koran's revelation is the classical Islamic story about the religion's foundation.