One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.

It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes you hate humanity - but when you see people at their work they elicit respect, whether it's a mechanic, a stonemason or an accountant.

We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire.

Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.

I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work.

Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.