When I see a paragraph shrinking under my eyes like a strip of bacon in a skillet, I know I'm on the right track.

I think people love each other a little more than they hate each other ... Love has a slim hold on the human corporation, like fifty-one per cent, but it's enough.

Before the mind snaps, or the heart breaks, it gather itself like a clock about to strike. It might even be said one pulls himself together to disintegrate.

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

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.

... it is a fact universally acknowledged that a husband is the most ridiculous thing on earth, except for a bachelor.

Mrs Thicknesse and I agreed that a business of his own was probably the only solution for him because he was obviously unemployable.