Once you are thought selfish, not only are you forgiven a life designed mainly to suit yourself, which in anyone else would appear monstrous, but if an impulse to generosity should by chance overpower you, you will get five times the credit of some poor selfless soul who has been oozing kindness for years.

Male friends do not always face each other; they stand side by side, facing the world.

Whether animals admit it or not, they and I communicate.

Normal is absolutely my least favorite word.

I don't know why togetherness was ever held up as an ideal of marriage. Away from home for both, then together, that's much better.

Power consists to a large extent in deciding what stories will be told.

Whether deliberately, unconsciously or accidentally, she seems to have composed her own life so that its fitful, rudderless, and self-doubting first half was alchemized into gold when the austere bluestocking became the fallen woman.