the old ploy of the powerful: never refuse when you can confuse. Distraction and delay are always better than obstruction.

Privacy is like sleep - something you don't appreciate until you have to go without it.

Nobody believes in ghosts, but everybody is afraid of them.

That's the worst thing about money - the moment you have some you begin to suspect everyone of trying to take it away from you. And usually they are.

Other people's children, like other people's love affairs, were so much less interesting than one's own.

Falling in love is like religious conversion. It goes on for a long time below the threshold before it reaches consciousness.

Thunderstorms were rare in California, but when they came they were, like most things in California, larger than life.