There are few things that are more revealing about someone than the way that they talk about a piece of literature or a play. You very quickly come to have a much deeper understanding of someone than you would if you just mingled together in a pub saying, 'All right, how are you?'

I left school early in my last year before I took my A-levels. I wasn't expelled. It was just a mutual understanding. I wasn't interested in going to school and they said, 'You're not turning up,' so we severed ties. Both sides appreciated it.

The phrase 'dream career' sounds pretty stupid.

My career may look bizarre to some, but I have very strong reasons for doing every single job I've done.

Middle age is the awkward period when Father Time starts catching up with Mother Nature.

When I was young I was one of the second generation of black people in Holland. My father was the first. My mother was white, and living with a black man at that time and having a how-you-say half-caste boy is not easy.

What we must not do - what we must never do - is turn on our neighbors, our family members, our fellow Americans, for something they cannot control, and deny what makes them human.

North Koreans are forced to work at state jobs in a moribund economy. Countless parents watch their children go to bed hungry. Many North Korean families feel they have no option but to try to escape.