The arrangements that couples make in order to maintain civility in the midst of their journey to divorce are often most elaborate when the professed top priority is to protect a child.

I have stood aside to see the phantoms of those days go by me. They are gone, and I resume the journey of my story.’ (David Copperfield) “But all that night he lay awake because the phantoms of those days were not gone. Like the tiny, terrible holes in the prophylactics, the phantoms of those days were not easy to detect—and their meaning was unknown—but they were there.

We will often do anything to pretend that nothing is on our minds.

It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don't expect me to change.

What was even more germane was my study of the history of religion. It was one of the few things in school I was fascinated by.

I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

As it was, things went from bad to worse, as they often will when amateurs are involved in an activity that they perform in bad temper – or in a hurry.