A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

I first became interested in women and religion when I was one of the few women doing graduate work in Religious Studies at Yale University in the late 1960's.

It's become unfashionable to celebrate political achievement and Labour achievement even less so. And it's positively uncouth to be proud of something that this Labour government is doing. So slam me for saying so but I'm really proud of the NHS.

We don't walk. We overeat because we've made it easy to overeat. We have fast-food joints on every corner. By the way the 'we' is all of us. It's not the government. It's all of us doing this together.

Pretty much at all times music motivates me. How can I say this without sounding in any way proud of myself? Obviously I've always written songs that are critical of our government and talk about our times. Hopefully you attempt to be timeless while doing it.

Every dollar I can't commit to my company that's paid in taxes is paying a government that I believe is too big and doing way too much that I don't want done.

My house was bugged. They couldn't find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America I just don't like some of the things the government is doing.

It's dismaying to see the unilateralism that the government is doing.

I was elected to come to an incredibly dysfunctional capital and make the government work better and that's what I'm doing.

And some of what we're doing in Government even now some of the welfare reform programs that are helping lone mothers come into work are based on things that were very new under the Labour Government in the eighties.

There's much more we can be doing in Parliament we could be giving more power back to people at local government level through local referendums.

If you're an old pro you know how well you're doing when you're doing it and your inner government spanks you if you're not doing well.

Someone has to stay on the line and say no we can do this by cutting spending and reducing the size of government. That's what I was committed to doing.

All too often government's response to social breakdown has been a classic case of 'patching' - a case of handing money out containing problems and limiting the damage but in doing so supporting - even reinforcing - dysfunctional behaviour.

This is a country for of and by the people not for of and by the government. If we turn it over to them we cannot complain about what they're doing because this is a natural course of men and we have to hold their feet to the fire.

In a democracy citizens pass judgment on their government and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

In the rush to become all things to all people the federal government has lost sight of its core responsibilities. As a result we're stuck in this frustrating paradox where Washington actually neglects things it's clearly supposed to be doing while interfering in other areas where they are neither welcome nor authorized.

To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.

Being generous or doing things for others actually makes me feel good so I don't do it because I hope karma will come round and get me and I'll benefit from it.

There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn as in doing it.

To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open not closed. So yes my ego is big but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good.

If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other folks then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding.

You know when something feels so good but you're afraid to feel good about it? So you kinda hold back? Everyone says Congratulations you must be so happy. And you say something stupid like I'm just doing what little I can with what little I have.

We don't have enough support for maternal leave and the kinds of things that some of the European countries do. So we still make it hard on women to go into the work force and feel that they can be good at work but then doing the most important job which is raising your children in a responsible and positive way.