The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.

I felt my mother about the place. I don't think she haunts me, but I wouldn't put it past her.

I was always someone who lived in the future all the time, it was always the next thing - dreams of escape.

Sixty felt like a big landmark. Not in a dreadful sense, but none of the other birthdays have bothered me. It's got labels on it - OAP, retirement - and I just wanted to take stock. I wanted to be in my greenhouse at home and at least give myself the opportunity of not working again.

Children do have the potential to kill art. But now I think they kill the bad art. At least that is what my son has done for me.

The only thing I know is that no one ever sat in a therapist's or a psychiatrist's room saying, 'My parents just loved me too much.' The only thing you can do is love them and be around. Kids don't really care what your car is like or how big their house is. All they really care about is that you are around.

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.

I grew up in a low-income family. I was raised by a single mother.