"The act of writing is an act of optimism. You wouldn't take the trouble to do it if you felt it didn't matter."

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it.

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

The horizon is the ultimate architectural reference.