Women now were told not to settle for second best, told that they deserved better, but at a time, it seemed, when there was so much less to go around.

Twenty-year-olds have a kind of emotional idealism about relationships and about the world that enables them to say, 'No, you lied to me. Goodbye.' When they see wickedness, they walk away.

Don't make your own life your project in your own life: total waste of time.

This was my modest dream come true: unambitious flight. The kind that never even got high enough for a view.

She was afraid, and the afraid, she realized, sought opportunities for bravery in love.

It was not miserable - often I did not miss her at all. But there was sometimes a quick, sinking ache when I walked in the door and saw she was not there. Twice, however, I'd felt the same sinking feeling when she was.

They had, finally, the only thing anyone really wants in life: someone to hold your hand when you die.