You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you know.

You're nice,' Cushie told him, squeezing his hand. 'And you're my oldest friend.' But they both must have known that you can know someone all your life and never quite be friends.

And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer, you better like being alone.

I'm not at all contemporary, not even modern, and the fact that I would be so quaintly attracted to that wrestling rule makes me, I suppose, seem all the more old-fashioned. I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

In a school community, someone who reads a book for some secretive purpose, other than discussing it, is strange. What was she reading for?

…there was no more safety to be found in love than there was to be found in a virus.

Being reviewed is being condescended to by your inferiors.