Giving a party is like having a baby: its conception is more fun than its completion; and once you have begun it, it is almost impossible to stop.

swans ... always look as though they'd just been reading their own fan-mail.

The worst of gardening is that it's so full of metaphors one hardly knows where to begin.

Giving a party is like having a baby: its conception is more fun than its completion; and once you have begun it, it is almost impossible to stop.

One is what one remembers: no more, no less.

And I am a mockery, who was God before.

A single person is a manageable entity, whom you can either make friends with or leave alone. But half of a married couple is not exactly a whole human being: if the marriage is successful it is something a little more than that; if unsuccessful, a little less. In either case, a fresh complication is added to the already intricate business of friendship: as Clem had once remarked, you might as well try to dance a tarantella with a Siamese twin.