The photoshoot glitz and TV studio make-up isn't the real me.

The photoshoot glitz and TV studio make-up isn't the real me. I spend most days at home in Bristol in jeans and a T-shirt running around after the kids or shopping in the Co-op.

I cannot do the piece-of-talking-meat thing, the 'Here's your money, wear a pretty dress and take the cheque.' I'm not made that way. I have to be as good as I can be at whatever I do.

I would put belly laughing at the top of my highlights list. They always say that laughter is the best medicine.

I loved doing 'Countdown.' I now consider that I was very, very lucky - not just because it was such a wonderful show to do, but because it lasted for so long.

I was away a lot on 'Countdown' when the children were young and I couldn't have done it without Mum's help. Because she was at home running all of that, I never had to worry about them.

My bottom is so big it's got its own gravitational field.

My first marriage was totally unsuitable and shouldn't have happened. It was a whirlwind, rebound thing. I was 23 or 24 - a baby.

The first couple of days on the detox diet aren't pleasant.

I would never say never to marrying again but for the time being I'm having a great time.

I'd be happy to stay single now because I've always been in relationships. For the first time ever I can do what I want, when I want, with who I want, without answering to anyone.

He does it with a better grace but I do it more natural.

I'm learning all the time. I'm evolving all the time as a human being. I'm getting better, I hope, in all of the important ways.

Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.

People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.

Mad is the man who is forever gritting his teeth against that granite block, complete and changeless, of the past.

Without grace there is no hope, but with it there is no shortage.

I notice well that one stray step from the habitual path leads irresistibly into a new direction. Life moves forward, it never reverses its course.

When my friends lack an eye, I look at them in profile.

I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares, now you've become one?

Beginnings are easy, the thing is to finish the race