There is nothing better than a proper breakfast.
— Sophie Dahl
How I view my body hasn't been uncomplicated, but that was because my body was discussed and dissected at great length in a very public forum, when I was at a formative age.
Feminism is so pertinent - it affects all of us. As a woman you have an instinct to question sexual politics, we have a responsibility to care.
I was lucky because my upbringing was so eccentric. It has helped me cope with unreal situations.
In my family, we were all rather plump as teenagers.
I can't eat at all when I get sad; all I want is soup and easy-to-swallow baby food and, of all things, jelly babies.
I'm a great believer in fairy tales. I think it is important to have something you can lose yourself in.
When I was at school I wanted to be a writer and an actress. Then this whole modelling thing happened.
There's no pressure on me to be a particular weight. But I loathe being renowned as a 'larger' model. It makes me cringe.
I've spent a great deal of my life one way or another talking about food or eating food.
I think that if you really love a book, there's nothing nicer than to have a first edition of it.
It was a really lucky childhood and while, yeah, there were bits of darkness, which is known about because my mother has made no bones about her struggle with depression, the overriding memory of it is a very happy, good one.
I love anchovies in sauces, but on their own, they're repellent: their lurid pink bodies spook me out.
I am not ashamed to admit that I'm wearing Yves Saint Laurent from top to toe.
I have always been tall. When I was five, I towered above all the boys in my class, so it is something I have grown up with.
I like good manners, old-fashioned courting, I like being wooed.
I'm sure there were people who were disappointed that I got slimmer, but as one gets older one does often get a bit thinner. There was no great mystery: I had some puppy fat and I lost it.
None of the sample sizes ever fit me at the photo shoots. One would think that would've made me want to lose weight, but I just got rounder.
My relationship with food has always been uncomplicated.
It's nice being married to someone who likes to read because you can indulge in geeky conversations about books.
It really was total heaven to be a writer. As a model or actor you are employed on someone's whim. As a writer, you are in control.
That's the whole thing about fashion: it's fantasy. To dip into that at 18 and 19 was amazing.
Some people get fat when they're miserable; certainly this was true of my teenage self, but as an adult, deliver me a week of extreme stress and misery and watch me disappear.
I grew up with my grandfather, so I knew him really, really well. He was funny and opinionated and wonderful. He was fascinated by things and always curious.
I love sushi.
I still don't know what the 'ideal' woman is. Waifs will always be in demand because it's a lot easier to design for straight up and down rather than round curves. This is the reality, unfortunately.
Find me a first novel that doesn't have parallels with the author's life.
To my detriment I'm quite rosy-visioned about the idea of love. It's slightly embarrassing but it's part of who I am.
I have no complaints about my childhood whatsoever.
My cooking is incredibly haphazard, but I've never pretended it was anything else.
I had a fantastic time as a model.
I was very lucky that I didn't end up a basket case.
I go out to dinner occasionally and that's the sum of my dating life.
Modelling is a bit baffling when you're 18. I just thought, 'Brilliant - I get paid lots of money to walk down a runway.' I didn't think I was signing up to be a poster girl for anything.
My modeling career was really just a long accident - one that happened to coincide with my chocolate-cake phase.
I've started to read more factual books, partly because I didn't go to university.
I absolutely didn't think, 'I am really fat, I must get thinner.'
I was greedy and ate in that unselfconscious way teenagers do, constantly grazing and eating when I wasn't hungry.
On my raw food diet, my skin shone bright like a gilded deity and my eyes glowed in a somewhat unearthly manner.
When I began modelling I was completely unprepared for the onslaught of curiosity it carried with it.
I get asked about my weight endlessly. There is no story. It doesn't merit so much talk.
I should be allowed to be voluptuous or scrawny of my own volition, without people going on about it.
I do love cooking, but our kitchen is nothing fancy or hi-tech.
I certainly wouldn't feel safe telling people I was writer.
I wasn't lonely as a child. I was the eldest of four and always had lots of people around me.
I remember being home alone when I was about 13 and making a souffle from a recipe in one of my mother's old cookbooks. I approached it in a very unafraid way, and produced a rather beautiful one.
A formative cookbook for me was Nigella Lawson's 'How to Eat.' Its warm, conversational tone is wonderful.
I think everyone goes through a phase of longing to be little - I always wanted to be a girl who could sit on a man's lap, but that is just not going to happen.
I don't want to deride London because I have such a huge affection for it, but New York lets you move on and grow up.
For me cooking is a pleasure, it's a relaxing thing.
