Any problem big or small within a family always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

I'd be happy to be taken as a woman - and that's what I was initially trying to do when I started throwing on dresses and stuff. But that wasn't going to happen because everyone kept calling me sir. So I thought I'd change the method and just start wearing what I wanted to wear.

I had a very insightful friend who warned me back when I stopped reading scripts 'It's easier to change directions while you're still moving.' If you stop it's harder to get started again. I still don't think I made the wrong decision but he was right.

I was born left-handed but I was made to use my other hand. When I was writing 'Famished Road ' which was very long I got repetitive stress syndrome. My right wrist collapsed so I started using my left hand. The prose I wrote with my left hand came out denser so later on I had to change it.

As far as friendships go things change even without the fame. People start moving on. I have a few friends that are married and are starting to have kids and I'm like 'Oh my goodness gracious - that's so insane.' I also have friends who are just doing their own thing which is cool.

There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment - and you start to decline.

For an introvert his environment is himself and can never be subject to startling or unforeseen change.

When I joined Bill Clinton's start-up presidential campaign in 1991 I was confident that women would play an ever more important role but I never gave a minute's thought to what would happen if we won. When we did - and I became the first woman to serve as White House press secretary - it changed my life. But it didn't change the world.

Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together can lead a nation to change.

I think it true that you know sometimes things start to change even before a government changes and actually I think you can begin to see even the Labour machine beginning to understand that it has become over-reliant on targets and processes that local governments have been over-bossed and bullied.