Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of acting: character acting and lead acting. And in my life, to begin with, in the 1980s, it was all character acting. And then when, by fluke, through 'Four Weddings', I got into doing lead parts, it's a completely different thing.

Japanese women have always loved my films, even when no one else did. Ever since I made 'Maurice' in the 1980s, I've been getting hundreds of letter from Japanese girls. They definitely have a special place in my heart.

I really liked 'Starter For Ten' because I grew up watching 1980s teen films like 'St. Elmo's Fire' and 'The Breakfast Club' and I've always wanted to play the underdog lead hero in a 1980s-inspired film.

When I started out as a music journalist at the end of the 1980s it was generally assumed that we were living through the lamest music era the world would ever see. But those were also the years when hip-hop exploded beatbox disco soared indie rock took off and new wave invented a language of teen angst.

Movies for adults sucked in the 1980s and music for adults sucked even worse whether we're talking about Kathleen Turner flicks or Sting albums the decade's non-teen culture has no staying power at all.

And it was back in the mid-1980s and as I point out in a piece that was when we are spending about eight percent of our gross domestic product on health care. And even then we had the impression that so much of the excessive aggressive medical treatment that took place at the end of life was not only unnecessary but it was cruel.

The '80s were fabulous. The '90s sucked and the '70s were just a sad sad time in human history. Go 1980s! There's something that's just so cute about that time. And not just yellow nail polish and 'I'm a loner.'

I have been following a vegan diet now since the 1980s and find it not only healthier but also much more attractive than the chunks of meat that were on my plate as a child.

The great fear that hung over the business community in the 1970s was death by regulation and the great goal of the conservative movement as it rose to triumph in the 1980s was to remove that threat - to keep OSHA the EPA and the FTC from choking off entrepreneurship with their infernal meddling in the marketplace.

A few years back when my style was 'punk grandma ' I picked up an amazing pair of sandals - orthopaedic ones with really thick soles. I've given them away to a friend now because these days my look is more '1980s substitute teacher gone wild.'

Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he met alone at Geneva - alone not a single strategic thinker at his elbow! - with the Soviet Communist master Gorbachev.

In the 1970s and 1980s there was so little decent fiction for young people but we're now in a golden age that shows no sign of fading. Philip Pullman J. K. Rowling Lemony Snicket are only three of the best known among a good number of equals.