A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land?

Lou knew that joy unshared was a halved emotion, just as sadness and loss, when borne alone, were often doubled.

I am capable of being idle.

There is plenty of work for love to do.

When you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need to do.

But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn't it? - and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.

It is sometimes easier to be happy if you don't know everything.