I don’t think you should spend much time being unhappy about the bad breaks. You get a lot of them, but you also get a lot of good ones. The thing to do is just to maximize your odds of using the good ones and minimizing the effects of the bad ones.

A good novel should be like a bomb, exploding in the reader's mind and leaving a lasting impact.

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.