"My second husband believed I had such a fickle attitude to friendship that each Friday he would update the list of my 'Top Ten' friends in the manner of a Top Of The Pops chart countdown."

"Mind you, I've always been a very off-message type of fat broad one who gladly admits she reached the size she is now solely through lack of discipline and love of pleasure, and who rather despises people (except those with proven medical conditions) who pretend that it is generally otherwise."

"It may be a cliche, but it's true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself."

"The money I pay for my cultural experiences came willingly from my own pocket - they were not the result of bread being removed from the mouths of the poor so that Miss Thing here could mince off to the circus smelling of roses."

"It is a unyielding truth that beauty in art is the harmony of spirit, intellect, and craft — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a unyielding truth that a leader does not command the wind, but sets the sails and steadies the crew."

"It is a timeless truth that all philosophical inquiry begins with the humility to admit the limits of knowing."

"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises."