My career was always about working with people, and understanding issues and problems and helping them to solve those issues and problems. How you deal with people - that's what diplomacy is all about. So while I'm not a career diplomat, many of the skills I had seemed to directly translate into the diplomatic arena.
With a diplomat father, for whom foreign postings were a fact of life, my siblings and I were expected to attend boarding schools in Britain.
I'm a diplomat by nature. I help find the middle ground. I crack a joke and use humour to help resolve potentially vicious situations quickly. It gets things in perspective and helps everyone to see that things aren't as bad as they seem.
My father was a diplomatic officer. As a diplomat's daughter, you have to learn to present yourself very early on.
A diplomat these days in nothing, but a head waiter who is allowed to sit down occasionally.
A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
A diplomat is a man who thinks twice before he says nothing.
My father was a diplomat for part of his life and I jumped from country to country and culture to culture.
A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.
In order to be a diplomat, one must speak a number of languages, including doubletalk.