On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

People always seem to assume that we have a full, back-up support team - make-up, costume and a driver - but usually, in a war zone, there's only me and the cameraman.

Hair is also a problem. I remember once, when I was reporting from Beirut at the height of the civil war, someone wrote in to the BBC complaining about my appearance.

I have no time for the endless nostalgia: 'Oh gosh I used to . . . ' Life is too short; I don't have any time for sitting and saying I miss things. What's the point? Go and do something else.'

My job is to get to the heart of a story, to find out what's really going on; to get it verified and, then, to get it out to as many people as possible as fast as.

I don't want to be involved in endless media gossip.

I was sent to a nice Church of England girls' school and at that time, after university, a woman was expected to become a teacher, a nurse or a missionary - prior to marriage.

The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

I never desired to go into war zones. I never had any thought about it. It sort of just happened as part of the job.

I wrote in the book very specifically what I wanted to write about, period, and left it at.

Now children as young as nine carry AK47s which can kill 30 people in seconds.

The power of gratitude is everlasting blessings.

A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals the secret of some hidden treasure.

My faith is a tool I employ, a metaphorical context I find apt, but it is inert until placed in a hand that needs it.

Goals are like bananas, they come in bunches.

When you want to do something creative and you want to do something new, you have to start with the thing that's making you want to jump up out of bed in the morning.

Since I was a child, my whole life has revolved around music. It's often while listening to a song that ideas for my fashion collections formed.

Ideas without action are useless.

Great art transcends its culture and touches on that which is eternal.

Actually, high housing prices don't help the economy. They raise the cost of living.

There is no western concern for issues of aggression, atrocities, human rights abuses and so on if there's a profit to be made from them