Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect. […] Take no notice of anyone with a ­gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.

But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.

Don’t read your reviews. […] Don’t write reviews. (Your judgment’s always tainted.) […] Don’t write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)

I am personally passionate and anal about non-negotiables. If those needs aren't met, I quit. Life is too short to play-act if you don't have to.

But if I’ve come up with any kind of mantra for myself it’s to try and put myself into a state of imaginative play.

His name is Barry Humphries but you may be more familiar with him from his character, Dame Edna, a self-styled international superstar. I’d say he’s hitting pretty close to the genius description because back in the 1950s, he asked cultural questions that others neglected to ask or even consider.

When Adèle walked down the road at the end of the film Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

During my Queensland childhood, on the days when I avoided the chlorine-infused shower gauntlet and being corralled into the deep end of the school pool.

Maybe it’s a little about self-belief.

They wanted it for its artistic value. I found that deeply moving.