People always say there's no such thing as bad publicity, and you always think they're right, because it seems self-evident: nobody's going to buy a magazine that nobody ever talks about, so people should want to buy a magazine that everybody's talking about.

Rachel Johnson

Of course I'm naughty. I've always had to compete for attention, you see.

Rachel Johnson

Of one thing there is no doubt: if Paris makes demands of the heart, then Munich makes demands of the stomach.

Rachel Johnson

If you tell the truth you get into trouble, and that's why politicians are extremely dull.

Rachel Johnson

Don't worry about never having time to write. Just write what you can in the time you do have and give yourself a big clap on the back, followed by a double latte and a blueberry muffin.

Rachel Johnson

I do not think that having children - I have three teenagers - keeps you young. The reverse. It thrusts you into a full-frontal confrontation with your own all-too-obvious maturity.

Rachel Johnson

I went freelance in 1996 and my children are now teenagers and it seemed right.

Rachel Johnson

People always say there's no such thing as bad publicity, and you always think they're right, because it seems self-evident: nobody's going to buy a magazine that nobody ever talks about, so people should want to buy a magazine that everybody's talking about.

Rachel Johnson

I think everyone can recognize the one-upmanship and the competition that go on wherever you are, especially among groups where the women don't have to hold down office jobs and instead get in a total snit about who won the longest carrot contest or took first prize for summer chutney in the August fete.

Rachel Johnson

The reason we all need a mutton alert, which needs constant testing, like smoke alarms, is because there is really no such thing as age-appropriate dressing any longer, as I know because my wardrobe is interchangeable with my daughter's.

Rachel Johnson

It's often discouraging sitting working at home, wondering whether to put the heating on, answering the doorbell to the gas board, feeling it's all utterly pointless.

Rachel Johnson

I don't mind being called snobbish, a pain and a social climber, but being called unkind really hurts.

Rachel Johnson

When I'm called unkind... that really cuts to the quick. You can say anything else that you like about me.

Rachel Johnson

I'm worried about looking like a bad person when, in fact, I try to be a good person. I don't like the public image that I've been dressed with and it worries me.

Rachel Johnson

I want 'The Lady' magazine to be restored to its traditional place in the pantheon of weekly magazines.

Rachel Johnson

There was a time when no difficult subjects were ever aired in the 'Lady', and sadly, life isn't like that.

Rachel Johnson

I talk to bankers, distributors, marketing people. I used to sit at home in my tracksuit bottoms, and the real excitement of my day would be going out to get a copy of 'Private Eye' and a latte.

Rachel Johnson

With so many forty- and fifty something mums and dads in Converse stalking the streets, I can see why there's a slew of books about the menopause and middle age, the most recent addition being David Bainbridge's plucky, glass-half-full meditation or, as he calls it, 'natural history.'

Rachel Johnson

I love writing journalism because it's all over in two hours and comes straight off the top of the head. Writing novels is soooooo much harder. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.

Rachel Johnson

English people are famous for never speaking out but only saying what they really feel about you behind your back. Americans believe the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I like exploring those, er, differences in national snippiness.

Rachel Johnson

I'd like to see women get on to boards and run companies despite the fact that men occupy the citadels of power.

Rachel Johnson