Grief is a funny thing because you don't have to carry it with you for the rest of your life. After a bit you set it down by the roadside and walk on and leave it resting there.

People today expect too much from marriage. Getting married is really like taking on a big new job.

Life for women in rural Scotland is not like anywhere else in the world. We all live very far apart, and you don't just ring your girlfriend up for a cup of coffee. There really is no sense of community, no pubs, no clubs. The golf clubs are male prerogatives, and the women are isolated and have to have their own resources.

She was always left feeling like a murderer. Because the messenger becomes the murderer. Until the fatal words are spoken, the loved one concerned is still alive, waking, sleeping, going about his business, making telephone calls, writing letters, going for walks, breathing, seeing. It was the telling that killed.

I never expect anything from anybody. I'm a bit Scottish like that - I don't like to be disappointed and let down. I like to take life very slowly.

In Germany, I have been called the Queen of Kitsch, but I don't mind that - as long as people buy the books.