Life has this in common with prizefighting: if you've received a belly blow, it's likely to be followed by a right to the jaw.

People who are genuinely involved in life, not just living a routine they've contrived to protect them from disaster, always seem to have more demanded of them than they can easily take on.

as the years go on a sense of deep patience comes over one; one seems to know the virtue of ripeness, and the danger of rushing events.

Only a marriage with partners strong enough to risk divorce is strong enough to avoid it.

What marks a writer is this: until she - or he, of course - writes down whatever happened, turns it into a story, it hasn't really happened, it hasn't shape, form, reality.

One hires lawyers as on hires plumbers, because one wants to keep one's hands off the beastly drains.

We cannot guess the outcome of our actions... Which is why our actions must always be acceptable in themselves, and not as strategies.