It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe.

As you grow older, it becomes harder to feel 100 percent happy; you learn all the things that can go wrong, you become superstitious about tempting fate, about bringing disaster upon your life by accidentally feeling too good one day.

Austerity need not be Europe's fate.

...and the great advantage of being a literary woman, was that you could go everywhere and do everything.

We create our fate every day we live

They put something to the side of my ribs and when I started
fighting he said 'shoot him, just shoot him,'