Older fatherhood isn't all bad: testosterone rates drop about 1% per year as men age making them less reactive and more patient and a professionally established middle-aged man is likely to have more time and money to devote to his kids than a twenty-something who's just getting started.

My habit would have been to veer towards the dark - to prove I was something edgy or maybe to prove that I was cognisant of the dark side. Now with age and confidence I can say yeah that's true but I am cognisant of the fact that people can do things well. And can be more loving than you expect.

Maybe it is something to do with age but I have become fonder of poetry than of prose.

I am firmly of the opinion that women who make a lot of effort to hang onto their looks in middle age (unless they are beauties entertainers or prostitutes) are rather sad as one should surely have something more substantial to recommend one by this time such as kindness or cleverness.

I hate the idea that you shouldn't wear something just because you're a certain age.

You hit a certain age and - especially because of TV - the young cooks coming up say 'You're a sellout because you're doing something other than what you should be doing.' 'Top Chef' is a double-edged sword for me: There's a whole group of people who will not come to the restaurants because they assume I'm not in them anymore all I do is TV.

I am happy being able to play roles with people my age because once you do something really mature there is no turning back.

With the song 'This Christmas' I wanted to do something that was kind of different. I mean Donny Hathaway is an amazing artist. So I wanted to bring my flavor to the song so when people over the age of 45 or 50 hear it they'll be like 'OK he did his thing with that record.' It's like I can appeal to everybody and not just a younger demographic.

I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think if anything the press kind of because of my gender and my age tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic I guess.

High expectations weren't nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then - children weren't fawned over from an early age as 'gifted' and groomed for a prizewinning future self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.