Today I'm channelling...

...is spending the next two weeks watching cheesy festive films, catching up on boxed sets and eating Quality Street. Back on 5th January 2015. See you on the other side.

Today I'm channelling... Emily Bronte

"I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: it vexes me to choose another guide."
Emily Bronte, died today 1848

Today I'm channelling... Betty Grable

"The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there."
Betty Grable, born today 1916

Today I'm channelling... Stephen Spielberg

"All good ideas start as bad ideas. That's why it takes so long."
Stephen Spielberg

Today I'm channelling... Arthur C Clarke

"I don't believe in God, but I'm very interested in her."
Arthur C Clarke, born today 1917

Today I'm channelling... Carrie Fisher

"There is no point at which you can say, "Well, I'm successful now, I might as well take a nap."
Carrie Fisher

Today I'm channelling... Taylor Swift

"If you're lucky enough to be different, don't change."
Taylor Swift, 25 tomorrow

Today I'm channelling... Eleanor Roosevelt

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
Eleanor Roosevelt

Today I'm channelling... Emily Dickinson

"Forever is composed of nows."
Emily Dickinson, born today 1830

Today I'm channelling... Judi Dench

"The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise, why would I go on doing it?"
Judi Dench, 80 today

Today I'm channelling... John Lennon

"Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will always get you the right ones."
John Lennon, died today 1980

Today I'm channelling... Joan Didion

"You have to pick the places you don't walk away from."
Joan Didion, 80 today

Today I'm channelling... Jay Z

"She's a dreamer, a doer, a thinker. She sees possibility everywhere."
Jay Z, 45 today

Today I'm channelling... Jean Luc Godard

Jean Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Un Bout de Souffle

"A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order."
Jean Luc Godard, 84 today

Today I'm channelling... Bette Midler

"I made a pact with myself a long time ago: never watch anything stupider than you."
Bette Midler, 69 yesterday

Today I'm channelling... Sarah Silverman

"'The guys who are into the shivering, limping girls, are not the guys you want."
Sarah Silverman, 44 today

Today I'm channelling... Winston Churchill

"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill, born 30 November 1874

Today I'm channelling... Kathryn Bigelow

"The journey for women, no matter what venue it is - politics, business, film - it's a long, long journey."
Kathryn Bigelow, film director, 63 today

Today I'm channelling... Charlie Brown

"In the book of life, the answers are not in the back."
Charlie Brown, created by Charles Schulz, born today 1922

Today I'm channelling... Roald Dahl

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
Roald Dahl, died 23 November 1990

Today I'm channelling... George Eliot

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."
George Eliot

Today I'm channelling... Maya Angelou

"A wise woman wishes to be no-one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim."
Maya Angelou

Today I'm channelling... Einstein

"The mind that opens to a new idea, never returns to its original size."
Albert Einstein

Today I'm channelling... Tina Fey

"Know what? Bitches get stuff done."
Tina Fey

Today I'm channelling... Margaret Atwood

"I believe everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise."
Margaret Atwood, 74 today

Today I'm channelling... RuPaul

"The biggest obstacles I ever faced, were the ones put there by me."
RuPaul, 54 today

Today I'm channelling... Pippi Longstocking

"Don't let them get you down. Be cheeky. And wild. And wonderful."
Astrid Lindgren, 1907-2002

Today I'm channelling... Robert Louis Stevenson

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850-1894

Today I'm channelling... Anne Hathaway

"Obsessing about weight is a big old waste of time."
Anne Hathaway, 32 today

Today I'm channelling... Kurt Vonnegut

"We have to be continually jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down."
Kurt Vonnegut, born today 1922

Today I'm channelling... Neil Gaiman

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
Neil Gaiman, 54 today

Today I'm channelling... Lorde

"I'm little but I'm coming for the crown."
Lorde, 18 today

Today I'm channelling... Robert Frost

"The best way out is always through."
Robert Frost

Today I'm channelling... Tilda Swinton

"I would rather be handsome for an hour than pretty for a week."
Tilda Swinton, born today 1960

Today I'm channelling... Joan Didion

"I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be."
Joan Didion

Today I'm channelling... Anna Wintour

"It's all about timing. If it's too soon no-one understands. If it's too late everyone's forgotten." Anna Wintour, 65 today

Today I'm channelling... the Wicked Witch of the West

"Don't make me get the flying monkeys."
The Wicked Witch of the West

Today I'm channelling... Amy Poehler

Yes Please is published in the UK by Picador on November 6

"Fighting ageing is like the War on Drugs. It's expensive, does more harm than good and has been proven to never end."
Amy Poehler

Preorder Yes Please from amazon

Today I'm channelling... Winona Ryder

"I think too much. I think ahead. I think behind. I think sideways. I think it all. If it exists, I've fucking thought of it."
Winona Ryder, born today 1971

Today I'm channelling... Bill Gates

"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
Bill Gates, born today 1955

Today I'm channelling... Sylvia Plath

"It's a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It's much easier to be somebody else, or nobody at all."
Sylvia Plath, born today 1932

Today I'm channelling... Picasso

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."
Picasso, born 25 October 1881

Today I'm channelling... Haruki Murakami

"Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only arseholes do that."
Haruki Murakami

Today I'm channelling... Doris Lessing

"You simply don't get to be wise, mature, etc, unless you've been a raving cannibal for thirty years or so."

Doris Lessing, born today 1919

Today I'm channelling... Carrie Fisher

"Females get hired along procreative lines. After 40, we're kind of cooked."
Carrie Fisher, born today 1956

Today I'm channelling... Edna St Vincent Millay

"I'm glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes."
Edna St Vincent Millay (1892-1905)

Today I'm channelling... Cheryl Strayed

Strayed on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995

"Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told."
Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

Today I'm channelling... Oscar Wilde

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
Oscar Wilde, born today 1854

Today I'm channelling... Angela Lansbury

"I just stopped playing bitches on wheels and people's mothers. I have only a few more years to kick up my heels."
Angela Lansbury, 89 tomorrow