the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.

Of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don't know why. Some by wanton extinction, some through natural catastrophe, some destroyed by meteorites and asteroids. In the light of these mass extinctions it really does seem unreasonable to suppose that Homo sapiens should be exempt. Our species will have been one of the shortest-lived of all, a mere blink, you may say, in the eye of time.

you'd like the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That must be the most futile oath anyone ever swears.

Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft.

It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.

Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious.

I wonder if childhood is ever really happy. Just as well, perhaps. To be blissfully happy so young would leave one always seeking to recapture the unobtainable. Like those people who were always happiest at school or university. Always going back. No reunion ever missed. It always seemed to me rather pathetic.