There is so much in life that doesn’t matter, so many things that hold you back, hem you in and throw you off the scent of what’s important. Don’t get too bogged down in things that don’t count or things you cannot influence, and specifically don’t worry too much about making sure others know you’re in the right, because it so easily gets in the

Part of her power to intimidate had always come from the way she looked, I think. Beauty was tied up with respect and integrity

Some people believed that if your mother wasn’t all that bothered about you she must know more than anyone what you were really like, deep down, because she sort of invented you so, so there had to be something really wrong with you then.

I couldn’t keep on trying to balance the equations all the time. That my care had equalled what she was living.

picaresque.’

The good mood she put on like a uniform every morning.

People don’t stop living just because they are dead, not entirely. You still need to love them, worry about them, console them, cheer them, humour them. Tell them when they’re wrong. If Eleanor died – I understood prayers for the dead more than anything else religion offered.

Terrible in life when you wanted to give everything and there wasn’t anyone willing to receive you.

You won’t risk yourself, and because of that you live in a state of permanent risk.