When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.

I don't know any form of art or entertainment that can affect people the way movies can. I know it sounds ridiculous but they can change your world. They can change your views.

For movies to get greenlit solely based on the success of other movies that have a lot of women in them? It's so ridiculous to me.

I have been pregnant in so many movies it's ridiculous.

I've found myself at one in the morning just sitting at my desk spending an hour returning emails from the day until like two in the morning. It's ridiculous I should be sleeping or dreaming or reading a novel.

I saw Deep Purple live once and I paid money for it and I thought 'Geez this is ridiculous.' You just see through all that sort of stuff. I never liked those Deep Purples or those sort of things. I always hated it. I always thought it was a poor man's Led Zeppelin.

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won't make people enjoy life more and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa - and it's about getting a balance.

You can't have bank holding companies acting as hedge funds. You can't have them taking a million-dollar pension plan for Joe Schmo the bus driver and treat it with the same risk appetite that you treat George Soros' pocket money. It's fundamentally ridiculous.

One thing that people keep on saying to me is that the wealth and the fame must have made up for missing out on my childhood. But the idea of money - putting a price on your childhood - is ridiculous. You will never get those years back and you can't put a price on them.