"One of the big changes in politics has been because families, individuals, have felt worried, insecure... worried about the economy, worried about their jobs, worried about their kids' futures... actually the disconnect between the public and media discourse and people's everyday concerns has become bigger not smaller."

"My dad's side of the family had lots of artists and musicians. There's an emotional, quite sentimental quality to Slavic culture. It's very open, it loves art, it loves music, it loves literature. It's very warm, it's very up, it's very down. I would celebrate that."

"Do I get up every morning and ask: am I doing the things that I believe in and am I doing them for the best possible motives? Yes. Unambiguously yes."

"You have a political and media elite who have an idiom by which they describe politics. It's highly, highly polarised. It's right, left, red, blue, up, down, victorious, crushed."

"I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had."

"Aside from sales, the letters from readers have been primarily positive."

"You not supposed to feel down over whatever happen to you. I mean, you're supposed to use whatever happen to you as some type of upper, not a downer."

"Blessed are the hearts that can bend they shall never be broken."