You can make a sordid thing sound like a brilliant drawing-room comedy. Probably a fear we have of facing up to the real issues. Could you say we were guilty of Noel Cowardice?

Man is vile, I know, but people are wonderful.

Life is a crowded superhighway with bewildering cloverleaf exits on which a man is liable to find himself speeding back in the direction he came.

There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Life is a zoo in a jungle.

I tried to write worse but it was no good; my generalizations came out as before, each more exquisite than the last. I grew discouraged.