Keep your talent in the dark and you'll never be insulted.
Anatomize the character of a successful hostess and the knife will lay bare the fact that she owes her position to one of three things: either she is liked, or she is feared, or she is important.
Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.
Serve the dinner backward, do anything - but for goodness sake, do something weird.
Cocktails are society's most enduring invention!
Good manners - the longer I live the more convinced I am of it - are a priceless insurance against failure and loneliness. And anyone can have them.