Normally, the thin-skinned have an endless array of excuses for why their workaday interactions are so much harder to bear for them than for the rest of us. In the eyes of the self-suffering, they are being victimised, used and always abused, when they're actually experiencing exactly the same body blows as the rest of us.

I've been accused of riding roughshod over others' emotions, and I admit, when I feel a friend is being over-indulgent, my patience is in short supply.

I would go out with people who really didn't like me very much and then wonder why we weren't getting married!

Having a baby is a disaster for your career. I don't think there's any sympathy.

I met Jason on a charity walk in 2001, and we got married on a friend's boat in Panama two years later. It was the perfect wedding for two people who'd already been married and who weren't teenagers.

I used to go out with someone who was a really great diver, and we used to go to all the great dive spots all over the globe - although I would spend most of my time crying because I was often too scared to go into the water. But once I was in the water, I loved it.

Reading a book you are not enjoying is a torture not to be undertaken without a reward. I leave plays at the interval, too!

I love physical books, can't bear to throw them away, and am drowning under the weight of my collection, but I do a lot of my work reading now on my iPad.

You're allowed to have gravitas when you've got the wrinkles to prove it, but not when you're attractive and younger - or, at least, you have to fight really hard to prove you're capable of productive thought.

Of course, I'd like to earn Jonathan Ross's money, but I don't have sleepless nights wondering when someone's going to knock on my door with sacks of cash.

If I was a man, I don't know if I'd settle down long before I was 50.

I don't want my daughter to think she has to dress like Beyonce!

I'm a control freak. And more so now that I have children.

In person, George Clooney lives up to all your expectations.

I have a very childish attitude to books - a very non-analytic enthusiasm... like Alice falling down the chute.

Nothing can prepare you for the all-consuming nature of motherhood, and I am very aware of my good fortune, as I spent years fretting about whether I'd ever meet anyone to have a baby with.

I used to routinely turn down things that might compound the impression that I was some kind of vacuous blonde. But now, when I look back, I think I should have done them because I would be very rich - being taken seriously isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Men that aren't threatened by opinionated, faintly aggressive women are in a minority.

If I ever write a book, it will be called 'Bottle Blonde.'

I love my children, but I don't really want to talk about them. I'm not that much of a freakish middle-aged mother, I'm just very lucky, and there isn't much more to say. I'd like not to be constantly expected to be a spokesman for things that are part of the natural rhythm of a woman's life.

Ageing is one of those battles you're not going to win. I'll try to look as good as I can as long as I can. I don't think I'll do cosmetic surgery because I'm a wimp.

Saturday and Sunday mornings are the only time the children are allowed to turn on the television.

Fridays are always movie night at our flat in Kensington, West London.

We're naturally programmed to endure a muddle of emotions as we leave childhood behind.