Older women can afford to agree that femininity is a charade, a matter of colored hair, ecru lace and whalebones, the kind of slap and tat that transvestites are in love with, and no more.

Reading was my first solitary vice (and led to all others). I read while I ate, I read in the loo, I read in the bath. When I was supposed to be sleeping, I was reading.

Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.

I grew up thinking there was one unpardonable sin – to be boring.

We can't change the moon but we can live in harmony with its tides, and we can make some ripples of our own.

A garden is the best alternative therapy.

Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.