Kester wrote about people and since human nature doesn't change his observations hadn't dated. - Susan Howatch

Sexual desire has to be dead as a doornail before a man and a woman can be genuinely at peace in a platonic relationship.

But never mind, all the best heroines are beautiful orphans, abandoned to their fate, and the one thing that's certain about my situation is that I'm going to be a heroine when I grow up.
Can I be a hero?
Well, I suppose you can try. But you'll have to try very hard.

The one advantage of being childless is that one can choose one's children and so avoid the bizarre game of chance in which one passes one's best — or one's worst — genes to one's poor innocent offspring.