Boredom on social occasions is an inescapable hazard for the over-educated, and for the over-ambitious it must be endured. - Susan Howatch

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.

Recovering from an ill-starred romance is, after all, to anyone of sufficient will-power and self-respect, purely an attitude of mind.

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.