Memory is a great deceiver: it embroiders until naught is left but the glory and the pleasure.

The novelist is more a marathon runner than long-distance runner and the kind of courage it takes working in such isolation cannot be underestimated. I really respect my fellow writers on this front.

We cannot choose the times we live in. Just as, sometimes, we cannot choose whom we love.

To be desired by those who are themselves highly desirable is in itself an aphrodisiac.

You must appreciate that love is the last reason for which a man marries.

The worst enemy is one whose doctrines are founded in hate and are thus beyond debate.

No, what Great Aunt Winifred was suffering from was the persecution every happily single woman suffers: the predictable social condemnation of her independence and childlessness. Dorothy reminded herself of what she'd learned during a university course on feminist history (with a strong Marxist slant): spinsters are a threat to patriarchy.