“Marriage, she felt, was a fine arrangement generally, except that one never got it generally. One got it very, very specifically.”

“Through college she had been a feministbasically: she shaved her legs, but just not often enough, she liked to say.”

“The night before, a whole day could have shape and design. But when it was upon you, it could vanish tragically to air.”

“It was true. Men could be with whomever they pleased. But women had to date better, kinder, richer, and bright, bright, bright, or else people got embarrassed.”

“This lunge at moral fastidiousness was something she'd noticed a lot in people around here. They were not good people. They were not kind. But they recycled their newspapers!”

“Pulling through is what people do around here. There is a kind of bravery in their lives that isnt bravery at all. It is automatic, unflinching, a mix of man and machine, consuming and unquestionab...”

“I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.”

“Future warns us through current symptoms in nature.”

“Human relationships always help us to carry on because they always presuppose further developments, a future - and also because we live as if our only task was precisely to have relationships with ...”

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

“If I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and t...”

“I'm an Earth ecstatic, and my creed is simple: All life is sacred, life loves life, and we are capable of improving our behavior toward one another. As basic as that is, for me it's also tonic and ...”