My commitment to the Republican movement was pure and simply patriotism a love of Australia... a desire or passion that all of our national symbols should be unequivocally and unambiguously Australian.

Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols which observe him with familiar glances.

When we talk about Oscars it's almost as a symbol of excellence and the American public and the worldwide public accept that symbol. So a movie like 'The Artist' that costs $14 million has to go out and compete with movies that cost $140 million. How does David deal with Goliath?

I wake up every morning look in the mirror and ask 'Am I a sex symbol?' Then I go back to bed again. It's stupid to think that way.

Poetry is that art which selects and arranges the symbols of thought in such a manner as to excite the imagination the most powerfully and delightfully.

It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails.

For all their current prestige Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza or Peshawar as romantics with little chance of more than symbolic victories however bloody and brutal. That gives both the Middle East and the West a small and distant hope of security.

Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.

A lot of people because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed to be the repository of other people's hope.

For years my wedding ring has done its job. It has led me not into temptation. It has reminded my husband numerous times at parties that it's time to go home. It has been a source of relief to a dinner companion. It has been a status symbol in the maternity ward.