There are moments when you feel free, moments when you have energy, moments when you have hope, but you can't rely on any of these things to see you through. Circumstances do that.

I was brought up among the sort of self-important women who had a husband as one has an alibi

All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.

I'm not very popular, because they're bleak and they're mournful and all the rest of it and I get censorious reviews. But I'm only writing fiction. I'm not making munitions, so I think it's acceptable.

All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and. . . you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.