I don't go into the newsroom and people start salivating. I can't think of anything further from the truth.

I remember my dad saying to me, 'But Fiona don't you want to go and do the dramatic society. You can still do your women's groups as well.' And I said, 'Dad, feminism is a way of life! It's not a hobby!'

The atmosphere in the newsroom could be pretty poisonous. When I arrived, the people who worked on the 'Six' were sitting there slagging off what had gone out on the 'One.' I thought: 'What is this place? And what are you saying about me?'

Coming to Rajasthan had been my idea, my dream. In the weeks before we arrived, I had tried and failed on numerous occasions to enthuse my family with the joys of travel in India; reading bits from the guidebooks, telling the children about the history of the Mughals, insisting to my daughter that she really would enjoy curry if it was in India.

The one good thing about jet lag when you fly to the United States is that you wake up so madly early, you can beat everyone else to the big tourist attractions and miss the queues.

You don't have doubts when you get offered 'Question Time.' You think, thank you very much.

I think the BBC has come a long way in equal pay. I think it's come the furthest of all in the representation of women on screen.

There's not much opportunity to learn to read the news. By and large, you either can or you can't do it pretty much straight away.

I have a few grey hairs. I dye them. I don't let them show when I'm reading the news.

I love 'Chicago,' I love the musical and the movie and I thought Catherine Zeta-Jones was amazing.

My father John taught me about hard work and the importance of manners.

I wouldn't consider cosmetic surgery.

You don't present a show like 'Crimewatch' without developing a real respect for the justice system in this country.

I've been a journalist for too long to stop calling myself a journalist, and also when I'm doing 'Fake or Fortune?' I'm going through a rigorous investigation.

I'm very fortunate in the things I've done and I've worked really hard at them. It's always ultimately up to the viewers whether they like it or not.

I couldn't imagine life without Radio 4.

I talk about feminism being a spectrum.

My mum, who died in 2011, was the most loving mother you could ask for. She was very compassionate, always a good listener, and her love was a constant throughout my life. She was very sympathetic, kind and understanding and I think these values can be underrated.

My parents' set-up was very traditional, whereas that's not the life I've chosen to lead.

They're all good-looking men - I can't think of a male presenter who isn't a good-looking bloke - but, you know, they're not judged by their suits and ties.

I met someone with a title on my first day, Baronet von Something, and I thought: 'Look at me, I've really grafted. Who are these people who have just waltzed into Oxford? I don't want to hang out with those people. They're nothing like me.'

When both my parents were unwell I was in that situation that will be very familiar to many women. I had young children in one part of the country, and elderly unwell parents in another. I was in a constant state of guilt. Was I there enough for my mother? Was I there enough for my children?

If you work and you want to see your children, something's got to give and for me, it's my social life.

When I started presenting I'd get invited to red carpet events and I went to a few premieres. But pretty soon I thought, 'Life's too short.'

If I want to watch things I'm on, I end up watching on my own.

Anything worth doing good takes a little chaos.

If you live a rebellious lifestyle, then you rebel against things because they go against your ideals and the integrity of who you are as a person.

Music is like the genius of humankind, universal... People who have never really taken the time to get into music, their lives are a lot smaller. Kids deserve the richness and dimension of it in their lives.

Later in high school, I met Hillel Slovak, who was the original guitar player of the Chili Peppers, and we became really close. We had a band, and we didn't like the bass player, so I started playing bass, and I got a bass two weeks later.

We must improvise, and we must experiment, and we must do things that might go wrong, and everything we bring - the people and the equipment - must serve us in that goal.

Steven Adler and I played football in the street when we were 12. I remember rehearsing in my bedroom with my first band, and some kid climbed over the fence of my backyard and peeked his head in the window to see who was rocking. It was Slash.

After running for a while, things really start to open up in your body. I felt like I'd tapped into parts of my body that I hadn't before. I let things in the universe flow through me that opened me up in a really cool way.

It's so easy to fall into a comfortable groove in life where you do the things that you like, and because of that, often times, we don't grow or change because we're not pushing ourselves.

For me, music was the only reason I went to school. I was kind of a street kid, in a lot of trouble committing crimes and stuff. Music gave me something to focus on.

When you make music, you're forming these invisible vibrations in the air into different shapes and consistencies and speeds in order to create music, and understanding how the math of that works just gives you more colors to paint with, and allows you to get to what you want quicker.

When I got with Nina Greenberg, I had been running for a few months already without a trainer. But then she gave me a program and guided me through my runs, showing me how to take care of myself and letting me know I should ice my legs and stretch - stuff I hadn't been doing.

Water is my main state. If I time before I run - like, to digest, like, a good hour and a half or so to digest, I'll eat oatmeal. but I'm a vegetarian for the most part, so in general, I just eat grains and vegetables and fruit.

Being a dad and being in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and all the stuff I have to do... The trumpet requires a lot of diligence, and I haven't had the time.

As a musician I'm about expressing what's inside, and I think everyone has a song in them that they need to get out, whatever their gig is.

I went to school and studied music for a year at USC, which unlocked a bunch of doors for me in terms of my relationship to music.

Playing music is a beautiful thing. But listening to music is just as great.

Ethiopia is such a great country, beautiful place.

Kids deserve arts, and it's just as important as science, math, history, English or athletics.

Music is made up out of these building blocks. Studying how these blocks go together and what they consist of and the math of how it works - it's all the same stuff; it's just different aesthetics that we're talking about.

My whole musical life has been an educational process, and I'm just furthering my education and filling in the blanks. There's stuff that I want to know that I don't know.

I grew up with all these old jazz guys in the '70s in L.A., and they grew up idolizing Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Lester Young - all of these incredible musicians.

When I was a kid, and it was time to go to college, I thought, 'College is for people who don't have the street smarts to make it on their own - get in a band, get in a van, and get rockin'.

I have a trainer, a really nice woman named Nina Greenberg, and she got me a training plan, and we go running in the canyons in Malibu. It's just beautiful up there, absolutely gorgeous. You see bobcats up there sometimes.

Turning 50 is a little bit of a 'taking stock' moment. I feel probably a little dumber. I don't think I'm as sharp as I was when I was younger, but I'm definitely wiser and less likely to make gigantic blunders of an intellectual, spiritual, emotional or physical type.

I was on a path that could've really led to disaster, and the one thing for me that really kept me focused and gave me something to believe in and a sense of self-worth and a discipline was music.