Fiction is not a dream. Nor is it guesswork. It is imagining based on facts, and the facts must be accurate or the work of imagining will not stand up.

Regrets are as personal as fingerprints. Discarding what is vain or false, facing the facts that should truly disturb your conscience, is worth whatever time it takes or pain it may cause. It can pay to the future what you owe to the past.

Regrets are as personal as fingerprints.

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along.

What does one save for, anyhow? For a few tired hours at the end of life when one sits and counts dollars? Or do we save so that those last years will not be mentally barren or esthetically shabby? I try to save a few things to furnish my mind decently, on the theory that no auctioneer can get in there to sell off all the furniture.

Cleaning up with children around is like shoveling during a blizzard

You wouldn't be caught wearing cheap perfume, would you? Then why do you want to wear cheap perfume in your conduct?