Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I'm not recommending it as a way to write. It's very sloppy, but it works for me.

Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.

I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.

Exaggeration is the cheapest form of humor.

The combination of physical strength and moral sincerity combined with tenderness of heart is exactly what is wanted in a husband.--Ameila Peabody

If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson

There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.