In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for after all habit is relative to a stereotyped world and meantime it is only the roughness of the eye that makes two persons things situations seem alike.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

I had decided I wanted to write about food and I knew the only way to do that is to speak with authority which meant learning the language and knowing what that experience is like.

While I was trying to save money to go to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia I ended up getting all of this experience which meant that by the time I had enough money in the bank to go to school I didn't really need to go to school anymore.

The perfection of our union especially our commitment to equality of opportunity has been a story of constant striving to live up to our Founding principles. This is what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said 'In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.'

My mother was born on a tiny farm in County Mayo. She was meant to stay at home and look after the farm while her brother and sister got an education. However she came to England on a visit and never went back.

What I got which was unusual especially as a child actress was parents who believed that Hollywood was not that important. They told us education family health all come first and they meant it.

I went to a football school which meant that I went to a university that served up education and was simultaneously operating a sports franchise.

Years later I would hear my father say the divorce had left him dating his children. That still meant picking us up every Sunday for a matinee and if he had the money an early dinner somewhere.

A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.

Success means having the courage the determination and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.

It's really cool to know that you've put something together that isn't for a particular audience. It's so often that a TV show can really only speak to one sect of the population and this really is something that appeals to a worldwide fan base. People who are into the pursuit of knowledge. Their reaction has meant the world to us.

I think some people record songs and make records a certain way to cater to radio. If you're born to make commercial music that's cool. But if you're born to not make commercial records maybe you're meant to cater to another market.

In too many instances the march to globalization has also meant the marginalization of women and girls. And that must change.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character would you slow down? Or speed up?

Now I'm having to live with sales of around 50 000 per album - but I'm pretty content with my place in the general scheme of things even if it's meant I don't drive a fancy car and can't afford grand vacations.

Well honey I had the million dollar houses I had the car I had the horse I had the barn I had everything. Was I set free? I didn't even know what that meant.