Forty Is ... An Age At Which

I Regard This Novel As A Work Without Redeeming Social Value, Unless It Can Be Recycled As A Cardboard Box.

I Am A Member Of A Small, Nearly Extinct Minority Group, A Kind Of Urban Lost Tribe Who Insist, In The Face Of All Evidence To The Contrary, On The Sanctity Of Being On Time. Which Is To Say That We On-timers Are Compulsively, Unfashionably Prompt, That There Are Only Handfuls Of Us In Any Given City And, Unfortunately, We Never Seem To Have Appointments With Each Other.

The Central Paradox Of Motherhood Is That While Our Children Become The Absolute Center Of Our Lives, They Must Also Push Us Backout In The World.... But Motherhood That Can Narrow Our Lives Can Also Broaden Them. It Can Make Us Focus Intensely On The Moment And Invest Heavily In The Future.

On Television, Journalists Now Routinely Appear On Talk-shows-with-an-attitude Where They Are Encouraged To Say What They Think About Something They May Not Have Finished Thinking About.

Once Upon A Time We Were Just Plain People. But That Was Before We Began Having Relationships With Mechanical Systems. Get Involved With A Machine And Sooner Or Later You Are Reduced To A Factor.