My mother a teacher encouraged me to use my creativity as an actual way to make a living and my father a Mississippi physician did two things. First he taught me that all human beings should be treated equally because no one is better than anyone else and he never pressured me to become a doctor.

I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.

With the success of the last three or so years when a lot of people start treating you differently there's a danger that you may start to think of yourself differently. You rely on your friends to say 'Hey wake up!'

For example the equivalent of a woman being treated as a sex object is a man being treated as a success object.

Breast cancer deaths in America have been declining for more than a decade. Much of that success is due to early detection and better treatments for women. I strongly encourage women to get a mammogram.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - essential to success.

There was a perception of me and I earned it because I was really intense really gruff. I treated certain people poorly at times. It was because of who I was. It was almost my strength. I came in all business. I tried to find ways to fit in with that demeanor but it's not easy.

About 10 000 years ago males and females were acting equitably and were treating one another as equals and then males took over the power because they have physical power and physical strength.

For many centuries suicides were treated like criminals by the society. That is part of the terrible legacy that has come down into society's method of handling suicide recovery. Now we have to fight off the demons that have been hanging around suicide for centuries.

There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it.