My husband says it is very good that I have very tiny feet, because they're easier to get in my mouth.

Yet there's something ominous about turning sixty-five. Suddenly old age is not a phenomenon which will occur; it has occurred.

..the best is only bought at the cost of great pain...or so says the legend

What was sleep? A blessing, a respite from life, an echo of death, a demanding nuisance?

Perfection, in anything, is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection.

Once I've got the first draft down on paper then I do five or six more drafts, the last two of which will be polishing drafts. The ones in between will flesh out the characters and maybe I'll check my research.

Twelve thousand miles of it, to the other side of the world. And whether they came home again or not, they would belong neither here, nor there, for they would have lived on two continents and sampled two different ways of life.