Fortunately for the human race, pain, however piercing, is not a lasting emotion. The recollection of happiness lingers, but the consciousness never retains for long the first thrust of tragic loss. The details of daily life crowd in upon the mind.

A marriage, even one that goes awry, generates claims and needs that persist like an afterglow long after the emotional fire is burned out.

A woman's life can really be a succession of lives, each revolving around some emotionally compelling situation or challenge, and each marked off by some intense experience.

I hate this place. I shall hate it to my grave.

You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance.

You can never be too rich or too thin.

I was a long time learning that wisdom and experience are things apart; that to taste life is not to be confused with understanding what life is really all about.