Six months of looking for a job had made me an expert at picking out the people who, like me, were hurrying up to wait - in somebody's outer anything for a chance to make it through their inner doors to prove that you could type two words a minute, or not drool on your blouse while answering difficult questions about your middle initial and date of birth.

Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song.

Home. It's being new and old all rolled into one. Measuring your new against old friends, old ways, old places, Knowing that as long as the old survives, you can keep changing as much as you want without the nightmare of waking up to a total stranger.

A loud voice is not always angry; a soft voice not always to be dismissed; and a well-placed silence can be the indisputable last word.

Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power.

A myth is more powerful - and more lasting - than reality.

Why do I write? The truth, the unvarnished truth, is that I haven't a clue.