I am the woman I grew to be partly in spite of my mother and partly because of the extraordinary love of her best friends and my own best friends' mothers and from surrogates many of whom were not women at all but gay men. I have loved them my entire life even after their passing.

Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40 after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40 maximum fascination can continue indefinitely.

The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.

After all what is your host's purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself if that were their sole purpose they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.

After all my possessions had been burned God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem.

If they can prove that I am wrong by that time I will give it up to their wisdom but not after to any one's judgment till I see the end of another year for the Lord will begin with a new century and I will see what he will do before I will hearken to any man's judgment.

After a gig I always head back to the hotel remembering granny's words of wisdom. I cancel the late-night pizza and watch the Jonathan Ross show instead.

It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories.

We don't receive wisdom we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek.

After I had the Caesarean I was told I had really strong stomach muscles and so would heal very quickly. And I did. I was up walking about within three hours. Six days after having her I was out shopping and shortly after that I made it to David Walliams' wedding.

A lawyer I once knew told me of a strange case a suffragette who had never married. After her death he opened her trunk and discovered 50 wedding gowns.

I'd been a wedding singer through college but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking glasses and the sound of forks on salad I thought 'Oh God if this is all I do I'll never be able to live with myself.'

I love doing comedy. Absolutely love it. After 'Wedding Crashers ' people suddenly realized that it was something I could do.

A person's character is but half formed till after wedlock.

It was only literally hours after the wedding when he felt he didn't have to keep up the facade.

I'm old enough to remember the end of World War II. On Aug. 14 1946 a year after the Japanese were defeated most newspapers and magazines had single articles commemorating the end of the war.

After the atomic bombs were dropped the war ended and we went into Tokyo Bay with the rest of the fleet the Missouri and the rest of them while they signed the terms of surrender that ended the war.

I think the International Criminal Court could be a threat to American security interests because the prosecutor of the court has enormous discretion in going after war crimes. And the way the Statute of Rome is written responsibility for war crimes can be taken all the way up the chain of command.

After every war someone has to tidy up.

The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money trade people and ideas also fell.

Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.

After every major conflict - World War I World War II Korea Vietnam the fall of the Soviet Union - what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force largely by doing deep across-the-board cuts.

What we want to do is reform the welfare system in the way that Tony Blair talked about 13 years ago but never achieved - a system that was created for the days after the Second World War. That prize is now I think achievable.