No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well.

You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.

But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.

Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.

You can think clearly only with your clothes on.

We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?

Fatigue is here, in my body, in my legs and eyes. That is what gets you in the end. Faith is only a word, embroidered.

Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.

By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being.

How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.

To want is to have a weakness.

Dream the impossible.See the invisible.Pursue the intangible.Achieve the incredible.

Life is messy and gloriously imperfect, and some signs of wear and tear indicate a well-loved, well-used home.

Temp'rate in every place--abroad, at home, Thence will applause, and hence will profit come; And health from either--he in time prepares For sickness, age, and their attendant cares.

I asked Tyson Chandler who has to customize everything because he's 7-foot-1. He's said, always call a designer. You want to wear certain stuff but people don't make it.

Of course I want to be [prime minister].

They [granddaughters] went to Disneyland and Alice proudly told Snow White: 'My grandmother is a famous atlas!' So that's nice - they're happy that I'm an atlas!

What do I miss about the UK? Sadly, almost nothing. Maybe the midnight sun, in June in the north. That's all.

When novels deal in abstractions, they generally go off the rails.

Broadcast TV is like the landline of 20 years ago.

I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics.