On one level nothing's really changed in my life. I still drive my daughter in the car pool on Monday. But it's impossible not to be aware of this rush of attention it's impossible not to be seduced by it once you've entered into it seduced by being unhappy when the attention wanes.

I was brought up in a car family my dad loved cars and I was taught the art of making an Austin 7 operate.

My first car was an '84 Ford Taurus. It caught on fire from me trying to change the fuel pump so that wasn't good at all. Dried leaves on the ground while I was trying to change the fuel pump. Don't do that. Do it on concrete.

The idea that maybe you don't have to own a car if you only need one occasionally may catch on just like time-sharing caught on in real estate.

I'm lucky because my dad taught me to be frugal and save. And that's important because I want to know that I don't have to take an acting job for two or three years if I don't want to and that I'll still be able to make my house and car payments and buy food for my dogs.

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!

Writing fiction is for me a fraught business an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up.

In the NFL a lot of times everyone gets caught up in the business side of things. For them it's all about money and it really leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

A guy named Charlie Beacham was my first mentor at Ford. He taught me the importance of the dealers and he rubbed my nose in the retail business.

Negro banks as a rule have failed because the people taught that their own pioneers in business cannot function in this sphere withdrew their deposits.