How shrunk, how dwindled, in our times Creation's mighty seed - For Man has broke the Fellowship With murder, lust, and greed.

There are some women who seem to be born without fear, just as there are people who are born without the ability to feel pain ... Providence appears to protect such women, maybe out of astonishment.

You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.

When demons are required someone will always be found to supply the part, and whether you step forward or are pushed is all the same in the end.

A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you.

There are some virtues to not saying what you think all the time.