I was lonely, but that loneliness belonged to me, it was nothing he created. Nobody creates your loneliness. Nobody creates that darkness you have in your tummy. You know, because we all have that. It’s how we deal with it, that’s what makes the difference.

Nothing ever comes to an end. Wherever one has sunk roots that emanate from one’s best or truest self, one will always find a home.

I think of all the choices I never knew. And those I let be made for me – to please, from fear, for love. Where did they disappear to, those choices that I never made? They are all part of who I am. They are the legacy I leave behind, they are the finished portrait of myself I cannot change.

You let go. And that’s a good lesson to learn in life. Let go. Don’t grow into a bitter and ‘What if?’ and ‘What if I’d done this?’ Never, never. Let go.

The void Papa’s death left in me became a kind of cavity, into which later experiences were to be laid.

I do not want to arrive at the end of life and then be asked what I made of it and have to answer: ‘I acted.’ I want to be able to say: ‘I loved and I was mystified. It was a joy sometimes, and I knew grief. And I would like to do it all again.’

Soon I will be an old, white-haired lady, into whose lap someone places a baby, saying, “Smile, Grandma!” – I, who myself so recently was photographed on my grandmother’s lap.

I just think that sometimes it is less hard to wake up feeling lonely when you are alone than to wake up feeling lonely when you are with someone else. Some people would be better off alone, but they feel they’ve got to get hold of someone to prove they’re worthwhile.

It’s better to wake up alone knowing that you’re alone, than waking up with someone and still be lonely.

One of the things I like about my profession, and that I find healthy, is that one constantly has to break oneself to pieces.