Equality and development will not be achieved however if peace is not understood from women's' point of view.

Every second, every day, every year, we fail to address demand for reproductive health and family planning services. Lives are lost, and girls' opportunities to thrive and contribute to their country's development shrink. These are real people.

The first day you're a leader is the beginning of the end of your political career.

What we need is to understand that women won't often apply for a job until they're almost 95% qualified. So they tick the box and say, 'If I can't do it all, I can't be qualified.' Men look at the same job, and as long as they get to about 60%, they'll apply.

We also learn that this country and the Western world have no monopoly of goodness and truth and scholarship, we begin to appreciate the ingredients that are indispensable to making a better world. In a life of learning that is, perhaps, the greatest lesson of all.

A novel is a great act of passion and intellect, carpentry and largess. From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire.

I learned a priceless lesson and one that everyone can use today - it's never the amount of money we have or haven't; it's always the amount of fear we have to wrestle with to make it through the day.

I want to encourage people to make healthy life choices, whether it's training for a half-marathon, or eating more vegetables.