“As a child, I wanted only two things - to be left alone to read my library books, and to get away from my provincial hometown and go to London to be a writer. And I always knew that when I got there, I wanted to make loads of money.”
Alone“From paying off friends' tax bills to rescuing stray dogs and stuffing £20 notes into the hands of homeless people, I can't get rid of my money fast enough.”
Money“As a child, I wanted only two things - to be left alone to read my library books, and to get away from my provincial hometown and go to London to be a writer. And I always knew that when I got there, I wanted to make loads of money.”
Alone“What I find most upsetting about this new all-consuming beauty culture is that the obsession with good looks, and how you can supposedly attain them, is almost entirely female-driven.”
Beauty“When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio?”
Women“The truth of the matter is, beauty is a specific thing, rare and fleeting. Some of us have it in our teens, 20s and 30s and then lose it most of us have it not at all. And that's perfectly okay. But lying to yourself that you have it when you don't seems to me simple-minded at best and psychotic at worst.”
Beauty“I don't really care what people tell children - when you believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, one more fib won't hurt. But I am infuriated by the growing notion, posited in some touchy-feely quarters, that all women are, or can be, beautiful.”
Women“Surely being a Professional Beauty - let alone an ageing one - is one of the most insecure and doomed careers imaginable.”
Alone“'Stress' was the catch-all every pamper-pedlar I spoke to used to explain why healthy women feel the need to be regularly patted, petted and preened into a state of babyish beatification.”
Women“My dad didn't drive - the only dad I knew who didn't.”
Dad“Show me a frigid women and, nine times out of ten, I'll show you a little man.”
Women“As with most liberal sexual ideas, what makes the world a better place for men invariably makes it a duller and more dangerous place for women.”
Women“Shame, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.”
Beauty“These women whose antics we smirk at good-naturedly in the pap-traps put themselves out there at least partly on their beauty they are in showbiz, and showing what they've got is part of their business as much as it is for male show-ponies from the Chippendales to George Clooney.”
Beauty“Big women do themselves a disservice when they attempt to become the Righteous Fat (the Righteous Thin are bad enough, all that running around and sweating, somehow believing it means anything).”
Women“The Feminist Me says that a woman's right to her own body should be inviolate at all times, free from fear of peeping paps.”
Fear“It's very hard to imagine the phrase 'consumer society' used so cheerfully, and interpreted so enthusiastically, in England.”
Society“Most women are wise to the fact that lots of men love a cat-fight, and thus go out of their way not to give them one.”
Women“No matter how old and glorious the models, sad indeed is the woman who sees fashion as a means of self-expression rather than an agent of social control.”
Sad“From paying off friends' tax bills to rescuing stray dogs and stuffing £20 notes into the hands of homeless people, I can't get rid of my money fast enough.”
Money“Being a monarchist - saying that one small group is born more worthy of respect than another - is just as warped and strange as being a racist.”
Respect“I am firmly of the opinion that women who make a lot of effort to hang onto their looks in middle age (unless they are beauties, entertainers or prostitutes) are rather sad, as one should surely have something more substantial to recommend one by this time, such as kindness or cleverness.”
Age