Scolding must be very, very fun, otherwise children would be allowed to do it. It is not because children don’t have what it takes to scold. You need only three things, really. You need time, to think up scolding things to say. You need effort, to put these scolding things in a good order, so that the scolding can be more and more insulting to the person being scolded. And you need chutzpah, which is a word for the sort of show-offy courage it takes to stand in front of someone and give them a good scolding, particularly if they are exhausted and sore and not in the mood to hear it.

Tears are curious things, for like earthquakes or puppet shows, they can occur at any time, without any warning and without any good reason.

Don’t repeat yourself. It’s not only repetitive, it’s redundant, and people have heard it before.

I go to bed early and rise late and feel as if I have hardly slept, probably because I have been reading almost the entire time.

This knowledge sits in my heart, heavy as a paperweight.

Just because something is typed-whether it is typed on a business card or typed in a newspaper or book-this does not mean that it is true.

I stayed there loving you, though the love made me, not sad but I guess melancholy, for a reason I couldn’t point to.