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I collect crystals and gemstones, and I've been collecting them since I was a little girl. They give me positive energy and strength. They make me feel connected to the earth. I cherish them.

I grew up in a home where diamonds were the subject.

It seems that almost every time a valuable natural resource is discovered in the world-whether it be diamonds, rubber, gold, oil, whatever-often what results is a tragedy for the country in which they are found. Making matters worse, the resulting riches from these resources rarely benefit the people of the country from which they come.

What are gold and jewels and precious utensils? Mere dross and dirt. The human face and the human heart, reciprocations of kindness and love, and all the nameless sympathies of our nature - these are the only objects worth being attached to.

I think it's fun to look at people with big diamonds. I see them in my audience all the time, with the fur coat, a woman whose hand is always out front, or the two fingers are on the cheek to show her diamond. I don't have anything against that.

I own a shameless number of ethnic necklaces acquired at local markets in developing countries or inherited from my grandmother. These have seen me through meetings in Davos and visits to refugee camps.

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.

I work with gold that holds our past and diamonds that see the future and rubies that long for love. It's just a way of telling a story.

Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.

Over the years, the diamond industry has had a devastating impact in countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola and the Congo, where profits from the sale of diamonds have been used to fund brutal wars, with disastrous effects on local communities.