The Thorn Birds' by Colleen McCullough. I took it on a holiday to Greece and just fell in love with it.

Having done something like The Thorn Birds gives you enormous longevity. You can keep picking and choosing the roles for a bit longer.

I want to be around a really long time. I want to be a thorn in the side of everything as long as possible.

Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh.

To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.

By the time I was 10 or 12, I had discovered the lure of the romance genre - and the dusty copy of 'The Thorn Birds' on my parents' bookshelf.

What do I think of digital recording? Well, it's all right. But those old thorn needles, now, that was a sound.

There is a whole generation of romance readers and writers who suffer from what I like to think of as 'Thorn Birds' Fever.

I'll tell you what, I love my daddy. And he's so special. He's meant so much to me, so it's not a thorn in my side to be known as Billy Graham's daughter. It's a privilege.

In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.

In The Touch, the love scenes are the same as they were in The Thorn Birds or anything else I've ever written. I find a way of saying that either it was heaven or hell but in a way that still leaves room for the reader to use their own imagination.

So sweet love seemed that April morn. When first we kissed beside the thorn, So strangely sweet, it was not strange We thought that love could never change.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.

I'm a liability to them - I'm a woman, I'm empowered, I'm an artist. I've had executives who can't come to my shows they're so scared of me. I've been a thorn in many people's sides just by existing.

I never found either this or the Northern Shrike return to such prey for food. I have seen them alight on the same thorn bush afterwards, but never made any use of this kind of food.

Social media, for me, is just a thorn in my side. It's painful. For us in crisis, it has totally changed the way we do business. It's a big, big game changer.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without the thorn.

The Arab League tells us to go in and take out Qaddafi. We've spent billions of dollars already with respect to the Arab League. Billions of dollars, because they told us to do it. Why aren't they paying for it? They don't like Qaddafi, Qaddafi's been a terrible thorn in their side.

But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.