I was born left-handed but I was made to use my other hand. When I was writing 'Famished Road ' which was very long I got repetitive stress syndrome. My right wrist collapsed so I started using my left hand. The prose I wrote with my left hand came out denser so later on I had to change it.

Imagine if the pension funds and endowments that own much of the equity in our financial services companies demanded that those companies revisit the way mortgages were marketed to those without adequate skills to understand the products they were being sold. Management would have to change the way things were done.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in it's all there at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in it's all there at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

I want to tell my jokes. I want to have time with my children. I want to entertain people. And at one point I'll walk away from show business. But I don't want to walk away empty-handed.

I looked on child rearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Beauty unlike the rest of the gifts handed out at birth does not require dedication patience and hard work to pay off. But it's also the only gift that does not keep on giving.

I think that generally music should be a positive thing I like Bob Marley's attitude: he said that his goal in life was to single handedly fight all the evil in the world with nothing but music and when he went to a place he didn't go to play he went to conquer.

I stood for parliament with the amazing support and help of my ex-husband but it's not something that was handed to me like a peerage. I worked hard and was elected. So my achievements such as they are are my own.

As his partner on this amazing journey I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success. He built it.

Old age calm expanded broad with the haughty breadth of the universe old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.