White. Like a clean piece of paper, like uncarved ivory, all is white when the story begins.

While medicine creates material for writing, perhaps even more important is that it also creates a psychological and emotional need to write.

The right thing at the wrong tme is the wrong thing.

Be courageous to live any work which had not given you any satisfaction

Any man who puts a pair of gloves on deserves respect because lots wouldn't dream of it. To get in there and go one-on-one, you need your hand shaking afterwards. Many men wouldn't get involved.

I don't think most people know how to meditate - they fall asleep and they call it meditation.

In our haste to grow too soon, we left our innocence on Desert Moon.

The walls have ears, better think before you throw that shoe.

Too much zeal offends where indirection works.

When I was leader of the GLC, by the time I had been in control for three years, the difference in pay between the cleaner and the director general was a four-to-one ratio. I find that attractive.

When you're a woman, you have to work harder to get a laugh... I follow so many hilarious women on Twitter. It's a daily reminder that women get to be funny.

I don't leave London, really, and I don't do theatre, because I want to put the kids to bed.