I wake in the night. Or sometimes I don't wake in the night. It hardly seems to make a difference.

She never opened her mail in the middle of the day. Sometimes she forgot about it for a week or more until people rang to complain. Nor did she check her answering machine messages. In fact, it had only been in the last year that she had finally bought an answering machine, and she steadfastly refused to have a mobile, to the incredulity of all those around her, who didn’t believe that people could actually function without one. But Frieda wanted to be able to escape from incessant communications and demands. She didn’t want to be at anyone’s beck and call, and she liked cutting herself off from the urgent inanities of the world. When she was on her own, she liked to be truly alone. Out of contact and adrift.

Thursday is perhaps the worst day of the week. It's nothing in itself; it just reminds you that the week has been going on too long.

In love, there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek.

Only that which is provisional endures.

There are two great pleasures in gambling: that of winning and that of losing.