a woman may be called a wife and mother for most of her life, while a man is called a husband and father only at his funeral.

Gloom we have always with us, a rank and sturdy weed, but joy requires tending.

My friends and I were all deathly afraid of our fathers, which was right and proper and even biblically ordained. Fathers were angry; it was their job.

The larger the ego, the less the need for other egos around. The more modest, humble, and self-effacing we feel, the more we suffer from solitude, feeling ourselves inadequate company.

Single life should be experimental in nature and open to accidents. Some accidents are happy ones.

A catless writer is almost inconceivable. It's a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat; they make nests in the notes and bite the end of the pen and walk on the typewriter keys.

Perhaps it's a good time to reconsider pleasure at its roots. Changing out of wet shoes and socks, for instance.