In the 'Garnethill' trilogy people always forget that Maureen O'Donnell's dad was a journalist and she did art history at uni and her brother did law but no-one ever thinks they're middle-class - they're just working class because they speak with accents.

I was always a kid trying to make a buck. I borrowed a dollar from my dad went to the penny candy store bought a dollar's worth of candy set up my booth and sold candy for five cents apiece. Ate half my inventory made $2.50 gave my dad back his dollar.

It takes a good deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This however I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask and take it as required.

I have three brothers and they're all into computers. They're all intellects. My mother would pay me a quarter a page to read a book and I couldn't make 50 cents. I just couldn't do it.

My daughter Lila loves the smell of gasoline - she always says 'Mummy keep the door open ' when I'm filling up the car. I've heard it is one of the most preferred scents in the world - maybe that's something to study for my next fragrance!

A woman's two cents worth is worth two cents in the music business.

When it comes to raising civilized kids there are no hard rules but there are two things on which most parents agree: Boys are generally wilder than girls and adolescents are wilder than kids of any other age. If you've got an adolescent boy you're in the sweet spot for trouble.