[T]he normal and the everyday are often amazingly unstoppable, and what is unimaginable is the cessation of them. The world is resilient, and, no matter what interruptions occur, people so badly want to return to their lives and get on with them. A veneer of civilization descends quickly, like a shining rain. Dust is settled.

She knew there were only small joys in life--the big ones were too complicated to be joys when you got all through--and once you realized that, it took a lot of the pressure off.

I had one elegantly folded cookie—a short paper nerve baked in an ear.

The turkeys I eat are raised on farms. They're different. They've signed on the dotted line.

So I needed to be womanised. I was losing my sheen.

I watched my friend Eleanor give birth,' she said. 'Once you've seen a child born, you realize a baby's not much more than a reconstituted ham and cheese sandwich. Just a little anagram of you and what you've been eating for nine months.