Youve simply got to go on and on with your family and friends and tell them how much you love them because you never know whether theyll be there tomorrow, do you?

Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake all afternoon.

The male - I have found - is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things.

I have a theory that the secret of marital happiness is simple: drink in different pubs to your other half.

At home I have big vats of cabbage soup that I make to slim down.

For sheer sexiness, a man must be beautiful. Funny. yes. Clever, no.

I love the long grass coming up to meet the willows.

If you feel compelled to give a New Year's Eve party, don't invite people to arrive too early or they'll go off the boil before midnight.

People who can write a book usually do.

I was so flattered that someone wanted me to write a book, I said I would. It was published in 1969.

And I would really like to be a grandmother, but only when Felix or Emily meet the right person and are ready.

Self-pity never leads to happiness.Remind yourself that the situationmay not be ideal, but it’s rarely theworst that could ever happen.

My marriage is incredibly important to me. It's the place from which I engage in the world every day, and the place to which I return every day.

Hey anyone who thinks a non-military–grade rappelling cable can support the weight of two grown men and a miniature donkey deserves to fall off a cliff.

When I was 19, I made my first good week's pay as a club musician. It was enough money for me to quit my job at the factory and still pay the rent and buy some food. I freaked.

Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.

Endurance is often the best indicator of validity & value

I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more

Differences are scarier now. The dollar isn't so guaranteed if you don't follow what they see as the norm. But I don't moan about it. I just keep working.

You will always have to live with yourself, and it is to your best interest to see that you have good company - a clean, pure, straight, honest, upright, generous, magnanimous companion.

My fiction may, now and again, illuminate aspects of the human condition, but I do not consciously set out to do so: I am a storyteller.