Jane Austen can in fact get more drama out of morality than most other writers can get from shipwreck, battle, murder, or mayhem.

To be old is to be part of a huge and ordinary multitude... the reason why old age was venerated in the past was because it was extraordinary.

The ordinariness of living to be old is too novel a thing to appreciate.

Jane Austen can in fact get more drama out of morality than most other writers can get from shipwreck, battle, murder, or mayhem.

One of the reasons why old people make so many journeys into the past is to satisfy themselves that it is still there.

I sometimes think that God will ask us, 'That wonderful world of mine, why didn't you enjoy it more?

Acceptance of death when it arrives is one thing, but to allow it to upstage the joys of living is ingratitude.