we all grow up thinking our parents found us under cabbage leaves and that sex didn't exist before our personal coming-of-age.

But why, she thought wryly, did a man seem more attractive as he became less available? How humbling to think one had so much in common with a cow stretching its neck through a gate for better grass.

Competence is a great creator of confidence.

But gratitude would not have me love you as I do. Love was inspired by what you are - the good, the bad, and even the foolish, which is what you're being right now.

[On New York City:] From a dating point of view, it's like a really large rummage sale - lots of strange items, but darned little that you'd want to take home.

Europeans condemned Chinese foot binding, but any society that had invented the corset had a lot to answer for.

I've always thought of this city as Disneyland for adults. ... There's no danger of Las Vegas expiring from an excess of good taste.