we all grow up thinking our parents found us under cabbage leaves and that sex didn't exist before our personal coming-of-age.

But why, she thought wryly, did a man seem more attractive as he became less available? How humbling to think one had so much in common with a cow stretching its neck through a gate for better grass.

Competence is a great creator of confidence.

Like cats and ice cream, showers were among life's simple, uncomplicated pleasures.

Enigmatic - the quality of keeping silent and making people wonder if one is stupid rather than opening one's mouth and removing all doubt.

A witty vicar once said that a good marriage is like a pair of scissors with the couple inseparable joined, often moving in opposite directions, yet always destroying anyone who comes between them. The trick is for the blades to learn to work smoothly together, so as not to cut each other.

Life is a good deal more comfortable if one doesn't expect it to be fair.

Parents and children were put on earth to give each other grief. You were my punishment for how I behaved to my own father. And I'll have my revenge when you have children of your own.

Once you can fake sincerity, you can fake anything.

Principles are sometimes an unaffordable luxury.

[On New York City:] From a dating point of view, it's like a really large rummage sale - lots of strange items, but darned little that you'd want to take home.