It always depresses me when people moan about how commercial Christmas is. I love everything about it. The tradition of having this great big feast slap bang in the middle of winter is an essential thing to look forward to at the end of the year.

First of all I've been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums songs I didn't write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums and they were all very successful.

At 35 I'm definitely starting to feel more like a grown-up than I ever have. There's nothing in my life that is childish or whimsical. Having fun is fantastic and I never want to lose a sense of that - and also I think you have to have that to put into your work or else it's going to feel stiff.

I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something then there's nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.

Behaving like a princess is work. It's not just about looking beautiful or wearing a crown. It's more about how you are inside.

Having a second chance makes you want to work even harder.

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having except as a result of hard work.

This world crisis came about without women having anything to do with it. If the women of the world had not been excluded from world affairs things today might have been different.

Whenever we have thanked these men and women for what they have done for us without exception they have expressed gratitude for having the chance to help - because they grew as they served.

I think women want to take care of themselves and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

The fact that the church is convinced of not having the right to confer priestly ordination on women is now considered by some as irreconcilable with the European Constitution.

After all what is your host's purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself if that were their sole purpose they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.

I see a wiser person than when I was younger: having babies and passing 30 were the turning points. What women in their 40s - I am 39 - lack in gorgeousness they make up for in wisdom. I love ageing despite the drawbacks - thinner drier skin.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

I always envisioned myself having a traditional and elegant wedding.

I had a 2-week courtship with a fellow student in the fiction workshop in Iowa and a 5-minute wedding in a lawyer's office above the coffee shop where we'd been having lunch that day. And so I sent a cable to my father saying 'By the time you get this Daddy I'll already be Mrs. Blaise!'

After I had the Caesarean I was told I had really strong stomach muscles and so would heal very quickly. And I did. I was up walking about within three hours. Six days after having her I was out shopping and shortly after that I made it to David Walliams' wedding.

There is nothing worth having that can he obtained by nuclear war - nothing material or ideological - no tradition that it can defend. It is utterly self-defeating.

The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15 000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!

I couldn't be happier that President Bush has stood up for having served in the National Guard because I can finally put an end to all those who questioned my motives for enlisting in the Army Reserve at the height of the Vietnam War.

A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth but that doesn't work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth - having an object outside of our personal point of view.

Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe having surveyed a few boxes full of letters diaries bank statements and photographs that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.

Friendless. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.