In my DAY, MI6 - which I called the Circus in the BOOKS - stank of wartime nostalgia. PEOPLE were defined by secret cachet: one man did something absolutely extraordinary in Norway; another was the darling of the French RESISTANCE. We didn't even show passes to GO in and out of the building.

My ideas about TIME all DEVELOPED from the realization that if nothing were to CHANGE we could not say that time passes. Change is PRIMARY, time, if it exists at all, is something we deduce from it.

Sadly, a lot of what passes for feminism these days is just moaning about men, congratulating ourselves on nothing in particular, and mocking them for being BIG KIDS while doing EVERYTHING we can to keep them that WAY.

Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Cooee, Julie! HELLO!' as if I KNOW them. Of course I don't BLOODY know them. Am I flummoxed by it? SOMETIMES. I think, 'Ooh, love, go easy.' For a time, I did feel this pressure that I had to be funny, but it PASSES.

The world gets OLDER, without getting either better or worse and so does literature. But I do THINK that the drab CURRENT PHENOMENON that PASSES for literary studies in the university will finally provide its own corrective.

It may not be POSSIBLE to get rare ROAST beef but if you're willing to settle for well done, ASK them to HOLD the sweetened library paste that passes for gravy.

I don't BELIEVE in the afterlife, so I do THINK when SOMEBODY passes, it's worthy of NOTE.

The MEDIA is comparable to GOVERNMENT-probably PASSES government in RAW POWER.

People often ask WHETHER Obama passes the 'kishka test:' whether he likes Israel SPECIAL, not in the same way he likes Taiwan or South KOREA? Does he? I think the kishka test was decided when he VISITED Israel. I think the reaction there was emotional and GENUINE.

In COURTSHIP, who WINS and who loses will determine who PASSES on their DNA to tomorrow.

Usually the MODEST PERSON PASSES for SOMEONE reserved, the SILENT for a sullen person.