A long marriage is very unifying, even if it's not ideal, and those old structures must be respected.

Eating reveals the characteristic grossness of the human race and also the in-built failure of its satisfactions. We arrive eager, we stuff ourselves and we go away depressed and disappointed and probably feeling a bit queasy into the bargain. It's an image of the déçu in human existence. A greedy start and a stupefied finish. Waiters, who are constantly observing this cycle, must be the most disillusioned of men.

I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.

One should go easy on smashing other people's lies. Better to concentrate on one's own.

The talk of lovers who have just declared their love is one of life's most sweet delights. Each vies with the other in humility, in amazement at being so valued. The past is searched for the first signs and each one is in haste to declare all that he is so that no part of his being escapes the hallowing touch.

There is no beyond, there is only here, the infinitely small, infinitely great and utterly demanding present.

On connecting: Where does one person end and another person begin?