Quotes from Twinkle Khanna

Ultimately, there is no definition for smartness. It's just the ability to do what you want to do really well.

I like crisp words like 'blimey', 'yikes', 'crap' which describe consternation, embarrassment, and sometimes wonderment without making me type so many alphabets.

I am not a performing seal. In your writing, you are tapping into the part that is 'the best' in you. But what you are also filters through in your writing your prejudices, your bitterness. I am not a pretentious person.

Naming me 'Twinkle' was a foolproof way of making sure that I would get teased throughout my life, have immigration officers at various airports stare at my passport and shake with hysterical laughter, and strangers stalk me with WhatsApp messages like, 'Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, I hope you get hit by a car!'

Chiki Sarkar edited 'Mrs Funnybones,' and she is a ruthless but kind editor to work with. The only lesson I learnt during this process was to say, 'Yes, Prime Minister,' and re-write.

Once, I went to the premiere of a film, and the producer asked me if I liked it. I said it's crap. But I don't say that anymore. Now I say I have to think about it. If you ever hear me say that, you know the answer!

Now that I look back, all the things that I was teased about, became game changers and my strengths. That's what we have to learn as mothers. We push our children so much to be perfect, but it's their imperfections that make them unique.

My husband has always been my biggest supporter, and my mother has finally joined the cheerleading team now that her friends have been telling her that they like my work as well.

Read everything you can get your hands on: Programme your mind to read all the time and everywhere - even in the bathroom; skim through the lines printed on the back of shampoo bottles and sanitary napkin packets.

Eat carbohydrates: All these protein diets may help you twirl prettily in a size-2 dress, but if you want your mind to take a few marvelous leaps, then you have to give it the food it needs.

If people see anything I do and the way I live my life, there is no ambiguity about me being a feminist.

I'm not romantic; I'm very practical. There are lots of fish in the sea; so whoever gets struck with your rod, one is as good as another.

I never said I'm not a feminist! I wrote one column where I was being sarcastic, and I called myself a 'wombist'. Now which sane person would say that 'wombist' is a better term than feminist? I was being sarcastic, and perhaps it was my fault in not getting the point across as clearly as I would have liked to. I don't think there's any doubt.

Relish being an oddball: Well-behaved, well-adjusted people are hopeless storytellers and, honestly, terribly boring.

I learnt how to make candles when I was a kid. My mom used to make them. Then, when I broke my leg once and couldn't really move around, I started playing around with it... putting the scent inside and dried flowers, and that's it.

My father was very fond of reading. It was something we did at our home. I don't think it fits the way people think Bollywood works, but that's who we are.

Walk, run, cycle - When you live inside your head for such long periods of time, you have to open the windows, air it out a bit, let sunlight stream into all the dark and dusty corners of your mind.

My fashion cues come from my work, not the ramps of the world. I just keep working with so much colour, texture and structure, it rubs off!

A wise woman keeps her hands firmly in her pockets and does not accidentally unzip anything, including her mouth.

My frankness has got me into a lot of trouble. I try to temper it down now. As you get older, you get wiser.

There are 146 countries above us where the men have longer lifespans, and the biggest blow is that even with four wives who don't fast for them, the Arab men outlive our good old Indian dudes.

What is feminism? We are just asking for equal opportunities, nothing beyond that. It doesn't mean that you cannot be pretty or you cannot cook or you can't do a whole lot of things. Feminism's got a bad rap; that's it.

I am living in the world that I always dreamed of. I am still not living in a world where you can teleport matter from one place to another just by atoms. We haven't reached there yet.

I have readers everywhere: from a radiologist who decides to compliment me on my writing while inserting a probe to check my ovaries to 80-year-olds who send me emails. And, of course, women my age everywhere.