When I was a kid, you were racist without knowing it. It was just the normal thing to use certain words you wouldn't use now. Along the way, we suddenly realised how it would make the people you were talking about feel, and then the penny dropped.

FORMER BEATLE PAUL MCCARTNEY

It's insane! Why did I do that? Hell, no! It's so dumb. No! Never!

POP STAR BRITNEY SPEARS, asked if she would repeat a 2001 performance with a live snake

I'm one of the ones at a party where you can always tell the writer because I'm leaning against the wall watching everybody else have fun.

AUTHOR ANNIE PROULX