I always write back to people who are kind enough to write to me. Actually, I don't write - I recline on my red velvet sofa with my feet on the coffee table and dictate the letters to my eldest son.

I always wanted to be Jo in 'Little Women.' She's a bit reckless and feckless, always getting into trouble like me. But I'm probably more like Madame Bovary.

When all my kids were at home, I used to write from midnight onwards.

I'm spectacularly disorganised. I wrote my latest book in seven different notebooks scattered throughout my house.

Perhaps I've found the secret for an unhappy private life. Every three years, I go and marry a girl who doesn't love me, and then she proceeds to take all my money.

I created jobs and saved the taxpayers money on every road I built.

Not that money is a driving force. It's an honor to play for your country.

We have concentrated wealth and capital to such a degree that the vast majority of us don't have the discretionary dollars to make our economy go and grow.