"Happiness is the most natural thing in the world when you have it, and the slowest, strangest, most impossible thing when you don't. It's like learning a foreign language: You can think about the words all you want, but you'll never be able to speak it until you suck up your courage and say them out loud."

"I like to believe that you don't need to reach a certain goal to be happy. I prefer to think that happiness is always there, and that when things don't go the way we might like them to, it's a sign from above that something even better is right around the corner."

"Moderate desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the good which the world can yield. He who has this character is prepared in whatever situation he is therewith to be content and has learned the science of being happy."

"Every summer there are a number of nights, not many, but a number, when everything is perfect. The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong – the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?"

"I wouldn't call myself a shut-in. I have the ability to leave my home; I just choose not to. But because I'm such a homebody, it's important to be surrounded by things I love."

"In the joy of others lies our own,In the progress of others rests our own,In the good of others abides our own,Know this to be the key to peace and happiness."

"I never do any television without chocolate. That's my motto and I live by it. Quite often I write the scripts and I make sure there are chocolate scenes. Actually I'm a bit of a chocolate tart and will eat anything. It's amazing I'm so slim."

"Have a variety of interests. ... These interests relax the mind and lessen tension on the nervous system. People with many interests live not only longest but happiest."