Diane Cilento

The best part of learning any profession, when you're really going through those huge stretching escalated times of learning and energy, is when you want to do it so much. ”

I had a place in England and was commuting from England to Australia, which is pretty stupid, but after two years I sort of knew what I wanted to do, more or less. ”

Very quickly, without really looking back or trying, I was just suddenly lifted into another sphere. ”

It was a very odd household, because the grandmothers were so different. Both of them had their own pianos. So it would be duelling pianos by grandmothers. ”

Suddenly I had a contract and I was earning lots of money. ”

I got through my teen years by being a bit of a clown. ”

I sort of was good at writing essays. I was never very good at mathematics, and I was never very good at algebra. I loved science, but I wasn't sure of it. ”

I learnt the theory of movement, which I still teach sometimes. I was very, very ambitious to learn a skill. ”

At boarding school you had to wear your name across your chest and your back, and obviously I had a pretty funny name. It wasn't Brown or Smith or Hughes. ”

Both my parents were doctors, and my mother had her surgery in the house. There were six children. ”