Nowadays anyone with a crap laptop and an Internet connection can sound their barbaric yawp, whatever it may be.

People want to care about people. People look after each other, given the chance. ... I believe just believing in goodness generates a tiny bit of the stuff, so that being so foolish as to believe in our better natures, if just for a day, we actually contribute to the sum total of generosity in the universe.

Nowadays anyone with a crap laptop and an Internet connection can sound their barbaric yawp, whatever it may be.

There are times with your friends when you just have to put their whole mess out of your mind for a while.

Sometimes, if you want to be happy, you've got to run away to Bath and marry a punk rocker. Sometimes you've got to dye your hair cobalt blue, or wander remote islands in Sicily, or cook your way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, for no very good reason.

Maybe I needed to make like a potato, winnow myself down, be part of something that was not easy, just simple.

Two years ago, I was a twenty-nine year old secretary. Now I am a thirty-one year old writer. I get paid very well to sit around in my pajamas and type on my ridiculously fancy iMac, unless I'd rather take a nap. Feel free to hate me -- I certainly would.