Tell people the truth, they laugh. The truth is so tragic they have to pretend it's a joke.

Kinsey Millhone is a female Sam Spade; a thorough professional, a loner, clear-headed and unsentimental.

A woman can do anything she wants as long as she doesn't do anything she wants! She can go anywhere she likes as long as she stays put!

Beware the beguiled, they do their own beguiling.

Fortunately, like all good things, Christmas Day does come to an end.

My idea of success was to be a boy - possibly because my brothers, Leon and Arthur, were my father's pride and joy, whereas he had to be introduced to me several times before he got it firmly planted in his mind that I was part of the family.

My husband believed that all women who want to should be free, equal, independent, creative, well informed, and lead stimulating, interesting lives. Except me.