She glanced across to where Tilly and her brand new husband were posing for photographs, Tilly fluttering a fan coquettishly in front of her face. 'Unfortunately I didn't realise there was a French Revolutionary theme.' 'The Marie-Antoinette thing?' said Dexter. 'Well at least we know there'll be cake.

You can't throw away years of your life because it makes a funny anecdote.

Alice doesn't seem to mind because she's laughing too, and biting her lip, all doe-eyed, and tossing her freshly washed hair, and Norton tosses his lovely, glossy hair back, and she tosses her hair in return, and he tosses his, and she tosses hers, and it;s like some mating ritual on a wildlife program.

Being a decent human being will require effort and energy.

And of course there is always joy in witnessing the joy of others

She wondered if she was doomed to be one of those people who spend their lives trying things.

The true writer, the born writer, will scribble words on scraps of litter, the back of a bus tickets, on the wall of a cell.