As one gets older being sad and miserable can become a bit of a habit. To counteract this, she suggests making a point of savoring such things as the tastiness of a piece of fruit, or other small things we might have been prone to overlook during our younger, busier days.

To wake for the first time in a new place can be like another birth.

Every piece of writing starts from what I call a grit a sight or sound, a sentence or happening that does not pass away but quite inexplicably lodges in the mind.

For an author nothing is as dead as a book once it is written.

Wanting is the beginning of getting.

It's only by being obstinate that anything is got, or done.

I loved Mr. Darcy far more than any of my own husbands.