We hear the stories every day now: the father who puts on a suit every morning and leaves the house so his daughter doesn't know he lost his job the recent college grad facing up to the painful reality that the only door that's open to her after four years of study and a pile of debt is her parents'. These are the faces of the Obama economy.

I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about it all the time - when I woke up in the morning when I went to sleep at night - and that went on for eight years.

What I couldn't help noticing was that I learned more about the novel in a morning by trying to write a page of one than I'd learned in seven years or so of trying to write criticism.

Thanks to the greatest invention of recent years the MP3-playing alarm clock I can now choose the song that wakes me up in the morning.

When you really deep down look at it we go to bed every night get up every morning stay here for 70 or 80 years and then we die.

Somebody said to me this morning 'To what do you attribute your longevity?' I don't know. I mean I couldn't have planned my life out better. By all accounts I should be dead! The abuse I put my body through: the drugs the alcohol the lifestyle I've lived the last 30 years!

I've been keeping a diary for thirty-three years and write in it every morning. Most of it's just whining but every so often there'll be something I can use later: a joke a description a quote. It's an invaluable aid when it comes to winning arguments. 'That's not what you said on February 3 1996 ' I'll say to someone.

I am so blessed. I've been way over-blessed. At 64 years old I look forward to going to bed every night so I can wake up in the morning and see what blessing is going to come my way that day. Because you never ever know what God's got in store for you.

I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist every morning at the time of his visit made me want to hang myself realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough not pretty enough not smart enough not this enough not that enough ' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought 'I'm enough.'

Well I needed the work - that's the honest answer. I haven't worked for a while a couple of years. So I thought it would be nice to get back to work and earn some money.

I've been very well remunerated for my talents over the years so I really don't need the public's money.

Never ever invest money that you will need prior to three to five years - minimum.

People assume I'm out there having this great life but money doesn't erase the pain. When you're young you barrel through life making choices without thinking of repercussions. A few years down the line you wake up in a certain place and wonder how the hell you got there.

One thing that people keep on saying to me is that the wealth and the fame must have made up for missing out on my childhood. But the idea of money - putting a price on your childhood - is ridiculous. You will never get those years back and you can't put a price on them.

And of course I didn't make any money from stand up for years so I had temp jobs. That was the way I made money.

Look I'm very much in favor of tax cuts but not with borrowed money. And the problem that we've gotten into in recent years is spending programs with borrowed money tax cuts with borrowed money and at the end of the day that proves disastrous. And my view is I don't think we can play subtle policy here.

I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.

It was an honor and privilege to arrive to this country 16 years ago with almost no money in my pocket. A lot has happened since then.

Last time I spoke to my mom she called me from a pay phone and we didn't have the best talk. Ever since my stepdad passed away three years ago she has been very depressed and hasn't been herself at all.

I've been a pretty selfish mom and a very unselfish athlete for about three years now and it's time to put my family first. It's probably time to move on.

I spend so much time with my parents. My mom and I were joined at the hip for five years. There was not one moment when I wasn't with her.

Well I was eight years old and I have an older cousin who is three years older than me and she was doing acting commercials and modeling at the time and... to see my cousin doing that was really inspiring and I wanted to do it. So I went to my mom and I asked her if I could do it and for the acting part of it she made me study for a year.