I've lost count of the number of times that I've been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I'm brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile.

I once choked on a chip at a friend's birthday when I was seven and had to be sent home, as I'd broken my collarbone coughing.

The battle to find a workplace that's wheelchair accessible is a feat in itself, let alone an employer who's going to be cool about employing someone with a disability in a job you actually want to do.

Too often, we fall into the trap of thinking 'equal' means 'the same' and that we achieve equality by treating everyone identically.

The magnitude of discrimination and stigma faced by people with disability in Australia cannot be underestimated. People do not understand disability, and people fear what they don't understand.

We are a society that treats people with disabilities with condescension and pity, not dignity and respect.

I am not a snowflake. I am not a sweet, infantilising symbol of fragility and life. I am a strong, fierce, flawed adult woman. I plan to remain that way, in life and in death.

I use the term 'disabled people' quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.

Disability is often framed, in medical terms, as the ultimate disaster and certainly as a deficit.

I don't generally talk about medical terms when I discuss my position as a disabled person. I take a social rather than medical approach to disability, and so long Latin names for congenital conditions are not relevant.

America is the best half-educated country in the world.

Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.

Optimism is the foundation of courage.

Necessity does the work of courage.

We're in a situation where talented, motivated school leavers and graduates can send off a hundred CVs and not get a reply, and where a trip to the Job Centre is depressing rather than inspirational. And you know what, that just feels wrong.

For a while, I became a model scout and agent, thinking naively I could change the industry from the inside, and even kicked off the famous 'size zero debate' with an article I wrote to the 'Evening Standard' about my concerns from behind the curtain of the business, back in 2005.

If you have time to get your pet rabbit its own Instagram account, you have time to at least tweet about something important.

I was so overwhelmed by the amazing response I had from thousands of women saying they felt beautiful in my first collection, I wanted to design more clothes they could love themselves in.

It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator, our very self-consciousness, is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution.

As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker.

The notion of the infinite variety of detail and the multiplicity of forms is a pleasing one; in complexity are the fringes of beauty, and in variety are generosity and exuberance.

I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.

You can't test courage cautiously.

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind.

Don't let fear rule your life. Live one day at a time, and never be afraid.

You can educate yourself right out of a relationship with God.

I talk to God every single day. And I say, 'God, my life is in your hands, and I trust you with me.'

I can trust in Jesus. And this Gospel that we preach does work. So those who are hurting and suffering today, hang in there. The sun will shine again.

That's a real secret. You can trust God. I feel I love the Lord with all of my heart, and he will not put more on me than I can bear. And so I always say, 'Lord, I trust you with me.' So I figure, anything that happens in my life, I must be able to bear it, or he wouldn't allow it to happen.

I learned more stuff in church than I did in the world.

I'm thankful for every moment.

The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be, our ideal of freedom and justice, how we were going to be different, and what the American experiment was going to be about.

Family and moral values are so central to everything that I am.

Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.

Together we can and must fight for justice for our children and protect them from draconian tax cuts and budget choices that threaten their survival, education and preparation for the future. If they are not ready for tomorrow, neither is America.

Unless children have strong education and strong families and strong communities and decent housing, it's not enough to go sit in at a lunch counter.

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.

The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people's children.

A nation that does not stand for its children does not stand for anything and will not stand tall in the future.

Remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.

Hunger and malnutrition have devastating consequences for children and have been linked to low birth weight and birth defects, obesity, mental and physical health problems, and poorer educational outcomes.

It was very clear to me in 1965, in Mississippi, that, as a lawyer, I could get people into schools, desegregate the schools, but if they were kicked off the plantations - and if they didn't have food, didn't have jobs, didn't have health care, didn't have the means to exercise those civil rights, we were not going to have success.

There should not be one new dime in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires as long as millions of children in America are poor, hungry, uneducated and without health coverage.

We do not have a money problem in America. We have a values and priorities problem.

In politics, there are no friends.

Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.

My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values.

I try to act out of faith.

I grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people and doing the best you can do.

I've never been a die-hard Beyonce fan. I always thought she was inspirational and beautiful.