I have no way of knowing how people really feel but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year's resolution is not to bark back.

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far far from it but there is no free lunch as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble.

I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries.

I don't think balance is something you get from someone else it's something women have to find from within. For me finding balance is still a work in progress.

If you ask men why they did a good job they'll say 'I'm awesome. Obviously. Why are you even asking?' If you ask women why they did a good job what they'll say is someone helped them they got lucky they worked really hard.

I wouldn't want my daughters to date a guy like me. I was dangerous around women in my twenties. I'm terrified that they might end up with someone like me.

I don't mind a dirty girl. But what I find tragic is when we as women become not the subject of our own story but someone else's object.

Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.

You women could make someone fall in love even with a lie.

What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence to be the last of your people to speak your native tongue to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the elders to anticipate the promise of the children. This tragic fate is indeed the plight of someone somewhere roughly every two weeks.