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

She used to pride herself on her refusal to see two sides of an argument, but increasingly she accepts that issues are more ambiguous and complicated than she once thought.

If she does have a failing, and it's obviously only a tiny one, it's that she doesn't seem particularly curious about other people, or me, anyway.

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.

…she was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same — you couldn't just soak it up then squeeze it out again.

And then some days you wake up and everything's perfect

…and you smile back and try not to think about the fact that you have nothing, absolutely nothing, to say to each other.