And when that time comes, let's hope your friends outnumber your enemies.

Things change, and not always for the better.

...she refused to leave anything to someone else that she could do better herself.

I'd always thought I would feel like an animal released from its cage when my student days were finished, I felt more like a bird that had been pushed from its nest and told it must fly.

I wonder if our names determine our destiny, or if destiny leads us to choose certain names.

Her beauty might fascinate men, but it was difficult to charm them when she stood mute. . . .

After all, that's why we read historical fiction-to be transported to another time, and to be astonished at ancient people's lives and traditions, just as they would probably be astonished at ours.