The confidence is really driven by the woman - whether she can have the confidence that there will be enough earning or income to finance all the domestic spending - but also by the middle-income class which for many Asian countries has become the growth power for the economy.

I had some of the students in my finance class actually do some empirical work on capital structures to see if we could find any obvious patterns in the data but we couldn't see any.

I don't buy into any of that hogwash. They put that out to sell tickets. It's just a classic horror movie with the Greek drama formula of good versus evil and lots of fear.

I took a Fear of Flying class and I always missed the class because I was always flying.

I've wanted to perform my entire life. I found a paper I wrote in kindergarten class about what I wanted to be when I grew up - and I wrote 'a famous singer!'

I'm just a public-schoolboy. I've got a degree. I'm from a middle-class family in Devon. I've got no story.

You have no idea how humiliating it was as a boy to suddenly have all your clothes your toys snatched by the bailiff. I mean we were a middle-class family it's not as if it was happening up and down the street. It made me ashamed I felt dirty.

I used to be a classic workaholic and after seeing how little work and career really mean when you reach the end of your life I put a new emphasis on things I believe count more. These things include: family friends being part of a community and appreciating the little joys of the average day.

Classical and romantic: private language of a family quarrel a dead dispute over the distribution of emphasis between man and nature.

I'm from a nice suburban middle-class family but my tattoos remind me where I've been.