I think that passion if really intense is always destructive if not to the two involved, always to other people.

We only keep what we lose.

Whatever peace I know rests in the natural world, in feeling myself a part of it, even in a small way.

I asked myself the question, 'What do you want of your life?' and I realized with a start of recognition and terror, 'Exactly what I have - but to be commensurate, to handle it all better.

At some point I believe one has to stop holding back for fear of alienating some imaginary reader or real relative or friend, and come out with personal truth.

I am not a greedy person except about flowers and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy.

There was such a thing as women's work and it consisted chiefly, Hilary sometimes thought, in being able to stand constant interruption and keep your temper. . . .