"Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not yet the end."

"Sophia will not come. How mad he is to imagine, for a moment, that she might. Why should she risk everything for him? He can offer her nothing, only love."

"I look in the mirror expecting to be 34 and see someone who is 58. What's that all about? I haven't even thought about turning 60 yet, but so many of my friends have celebrated it by now that it's lost its terror. And I don't mind being 58; it's just such a surprise when one doesn't feel it at all."

"I wanted to be a landscape architect, but I trained as a teacher; I worked in publishing; I was a waitress."

"It is a nice sunny day; his bunions have stopped hurting. There is always something to celebrate, in Gerrit’s view."

"Who everywhere is free from all ties, who neither rejoices nor sorrows if fortune is good or ill, his is a serene wisdom. Intro to Part 3, Chapter 1. Credit was given to The Bhagavad Gita."

"My favourite room in my house is easily the top room, which is a bedroom but also a bathroom, with a big, wooden carved bath, two huge fireplaces and a raised bit in the corner for performances. I've had some really lovely parties and poetry readings up there."