Everybody knows that the dumbest people in any American university are in the education department, and English after that.

I never asked to be born in the first place.

Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.

Never take liquor into the bedroom. Don't stick anything in your ears. Be anything but an architect. Live in a nice country rather than a powerful one. Power makes everybody crazy. Get somebody to teach you to play a musical instrument.

Perhaps some people really are born unhappy. I surely hope not. Speaking for my sister and myself: We were born with the capacity and determination to be utterly happy all the time. Perhaps even in this we were freaks. Hi ho.

Be patient. Your future will come to you and lie down at your feet like a dog who knows and loves you no matter what you are.

With words alone, Gail Godwin has created an important piece of music about a love which death can only increase and deepen. Yes, and Frances Halsband's illustrations are a haunting countermelody.