To us marriage is first everything else is second.

Let me first state that I believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman.

When I first started talking about gay marriage most people in the gay community looked at me as if I was insane or possibly a fascist reactionary.

Gay marriage has jumped out of the closet on to the front page. Everyone from the president of the U.S. to retired four-star general Colin Powell is embracing the issue now supported by most Americans. Still a few people like former First Lady Laura Bush appear to be conflicted.

I figure no matter how old you are it's always going to be your first marriage and no life experience is going to make you a better judge of who you should marry.

My father was a soldier and my mother was a great mover. She once counted up how many places she had lived in during the first 25 years of her marriage and it came to 20.

I decided he'd changed so much that a whole new book was required and that book actually I can say so was the first to say that the marriage was in trouble and the Prince didn't like at all and my book was being serialized in the Sunday Times over five weeks.

My first marriage was very traditional in the church and then we left the church and went to the reception hall. So this time I'd like to go fairy tale all the way.

My older sister was at the cusp of new wave and I had older brothers from my father's first marriage who were rock 'n' roll guys so I was exposed to a lot of popular culture.

Well marriage doesn't function in the way it used to in terms of deciding our fate but it's in our heads and it determines a lot of our actions. Like right now if you think about gay marriage - and they just started having the first gay marriages in New York - it shows what a potent idea marriage remains for people.