Most of us still caged within careers chosen for us by our not entirely worldly 18-22 year old selves.

We wanted to test each other's capacity for survival: only if we had tried in vain to destroy one another would we know we were safe.

All tours are filled with humiliation. My publisher once hired a private jet to fly me to a venue where 1,000 people were waiting. It almost bankrupted him.

It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad, and to lonely service stations that we should drive when there is no one for us to hold or love.

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

Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.

You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.