I was an early reader, and my grandmother, who as a child had been forbidden to read by a father who believed books to be frivolous time-wasters, delighted in putting her favorite volumes into her grandchildren's hands.

Anyone who knew the word slattern was worth cultivating as a friend.

What intrigued me more than anything else was finding out the way in which everything, all of creation - all of it! - was held together by invisible chemical bonds, and I found a strange, inexplicable comfort in knowing that somewhere, even though we couldn't see it in our own world, there was a real stability.

I was learning that among friends, a smile can be better than a belly laugh.

I'm at that age where I watch such things with two minds, one that cackles at these capers and another that never gets much beyond a rather jaded and self-conscious smile, like the Mona Lisa.

Although it is pleasant to think about poison at any season, there is something special about Christmas, and I found myself grinning.

To be most effective, flattery is always best applied with a trowel.