“As a child, my whole life was books. They were my fantasy. That’s where I could go. That was a lot of times [what] saved me.”

I don’t like changing with the wind; I like sticking to my own self.

I’m a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister. I’m a real person operating in the world. For me to discuss the most private thing feels wrong. It feels like I’m betraying myself and my children.

I’m not sure what the future holds but I do know that I’m going to be positive and not wake up feeling desperate. As my dad said ‘Nic, it is what it is, it’s not what it should have been, not what it could have been, it is what it is.’

I think that the most difficult thing is allowing yourself to be loved, so receiving the love and feeling like you deserve it is a pretty big struggle. I suppose that’s what I’ve learnt recently, to allow myself to be loved.

In my heart I’m independent, a bit of a rebel, a nonconformist.

Regrets are ridiculous, so I don’t regret, no.

You don’t have to be naked to be sexy.

Even from a very early age, I knew I didn’t want to miss out on anything life had to offer just because it might be considered dangerous.

I try never to be governed by fear; that’s how I choose things.

You have to operate from the sense of everything is new and you’re starting again.

If you enter the dark side of life, and come through it, you emerge with more strength and passion.

Sometimes your mistakes are you biggest virtues. You learn so much from the mistake. Those things that you think are the worst thing that’s happening to you can somehow turn around and be the greatest opportunity.

I find standing and posing for photos very awkward.

I’d like to be wise. You have to go through a lot to get there, but I’m willing to go through a lot.

I yearn for things, but at the same time I am just peaceful.

Even as a child I had a strong relationship with yearning and desire. And loss. Those things spoke to me.

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.

Each book holds an experience and an adventure.

Books are a friend, books are an escape, books are a means to empowerment and books are a means to understanding yourself better and in a world around you. They are everything.

The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.

What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!

Just give me a comfortable couch, a dog, a good book, and a woman.

Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.