I trust it will not be giving away professional secrets to say that many readers would be surprised perhaps shocked at the questions which some newspaper editors will put to a defenseless woman under the guise of flattery.

In spite of the haze of speculation it is still something of a shock to find myself here coming to terms with an enormous trust placed in my hands and with the inevitable sense of inadequacy that goes with that.

I am shocked at how much time I spend in the White House. I mean you know for people on the outside the idea of going to the White House for a meeting must seem like the most important serious even glamorous kind of thing to do.

The shock of any trauma I think changes your life. It's more acute in the beginning and after a little time you settle back to what you were. However it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche.

Trouble is kids feel they have to shock their elders and each generation grows up into something harder to shock.

Success comes to a writer as a rule so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.

I started my cooking 'career' aged 15 almost 20 years ago. At the time it was quite a shock suddenly working 75 to 80 hours a week without time to play football or other sports.

When onstage I always try to take my audience through as many emotions as I possibly can. I want them to go from laughter to tears be shocked and surprised and walk out the door with a renewed sense of themselves - and maybe a smile.

It was a shock to people of the nineteenth century when they discovered from observations science had made that many features of the biological world could be ascribed to the elegant principle of natural selection.

It is a shock to us in the twentieth century to discover from observations science has made that the fundamental mechanisms of life cannot be ascribed to natural selection and therefore were designed. But we must deal with our shock as best we can and go on.