I thought at the time that I couldn't be horrified anymore, or wounded. I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.

You can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her.

In a country that doesn't discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.

Time itself made all things rare.

Funny how the nature of a normal day is the first memory to fade.

Not that happiness is dull. Only that it doesn't tell well. And of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story.

...whenever a woman describes a man as sweet, the dalliance is doomed.

Though surely to avoid attachments for fear of loss is to avoid life.

I was mortified by the prospect of becoming hopelessly trapped in someone else's story.

My mind is huge with little stories that I never told you.

A carpet of despair which lay underneath the levels of fury.

Perhaps love and hope are one and the same.

Thought leadership is first and foremost life leadership.

Sow good seeds for a good yield.

For years and years I have done the work I was born for.

I had to learnto sew when I was growing up, because nothing else fitted me.

There's no point in asking why, even though everybody will. I know why. The harder question is "why not?" I can't believe she ran out of answers before I did.

You can become anything you want to be ... It's a matter of authority. Whatever a man's confidence, that's his capacity.

Every search has its own momentum. It is why a search makes such an excellent plot for a film or story.

Screw you, John." "Sorry, Sylvie. Can't—they frown on that kind of thing between step-siblings.