We need to recognise that what really matters isn't buying more and more consumer goods but family friends and knowing that we are doing something worthwhile with our lives. Helping to reduce the appalling consequences of world poverty should be part of that reassessment.

I've never had a very closely connected family. My parents split up when I was young and I was living with my mom for a little while then I was kind of just on my own really young. It wasn't some kind of global tragedy it was just never really a very close-knit family. So there was support in the sense that they didn't stand in my way.

It seems to me that unless you or someone very close to you has had a bad head injury you really can't fathom it. You have no concept of what it is all about. It was so difficult for my whole family not just me.

The last thing family and friends want is for you to spend money on them that you don't have or that you can't really spare.

I draw from my family and my friends and I feel like that small-town person. The achievements the materialistic possessions have really become to mean less. They mean nothing.

I play with my grandchildren. I tend to my garden which I love. Of course I love to read and family is really what it's all about.

My wife my family my friends - they've all taught me things about love and what that emotion really means. In a nutshell loving someone is about giving not receiving.

I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or two apart and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger sisters.

My family really does come first. It always did and always will.

My family isn't really all that different from anyone else's. Well maybe they're a bit more entertaining.

I really have created a family. I work with the people I love I travel with them I make films with them and I'm in an office with them. So in a weird way - I know I haven't birthed a child - I feel that I'm a part of creating a family. It's a tribe. I love that word.

The greenest home is the one you don't build. If you really want to save the Earth move in with another family and share a house that's already built. Better yet live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don't want.

The only people that you really have that I learned are your family because they love you no matter what.

I really love being alive. I love my family and my work. I love the opportunity I have to do things. That's what happiness is.

Over the last couple of years I've really worked toward balancing my life out more having a little bit more time with friends family and my boyfriend. There was a period of time when they were way down the list. It was all about music and touring and if everything fell by the wayside so be it.

And when I was young my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

It all starts with the script: it's not worth taking myself away from my family if I don't have something I'm really passionate about.

Life goes by really fast and it seems that there are times when you're burying a lot of friends and family. And then there are times that feel really precious and everybody is doing okay. This is one of those times.

No one really wants to admit they are lonely and it is never really addressed very much between friends and family. But I have felt lonely many times in my life.

Where would you be without friends? The people to pick you up when you need lifting? We come from homes far from perfect so you end up almost parent and sibling to your friends - your own chosen family. There's nothing like a really loyal dependable good friend. Nothing.

I was angry and frustrated until I started my own family and my first child was born. Until then I didn't really appreciate life the way I should have but fortunately I woke up.

It's true Christmas can feel like a lot of work particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories good and bad are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.

No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family what have you really accomplished?

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.