Maybe friendship is being the guardian of another person's hope. Leave it with me and I'll look after it for a while , if it feels too heavy for now.

Nearly everything I know about love, I've learnt from my long-term friendships with women.

No one has ever asked you to make a floor-to-ceiling-sized friendship collage for their birthday. Or ring them three times a day. No one will cry if you don’t invite them to dinner because you don’t have enough chairs. If you feel exhausted by people, it’s because you’re willingly playing the martyr to make them like you. It’s your problem, not theirs.

I hadn't ever thought that a man could love me in the same way that my friends love me; that I could love a man with the same commitment and care with which I love them. Maybe all this time I had been in a great marriage without even realising.

You’re too hard on yourself,’she said. ‘You can do long-term love. You’ve done it better than anyone I know.’‘How? My longest relationship was two years and that was over when I was twenty-four.’‘I’m talking about you and me, ’she said