Amanda Redman

“As we all know, poodles are a type of curly-haired dog preferred by petit bourgeois retirees, ladies very much on their own who transfer their affection upon their pet, or residential concierges ensconced in their gloomy loges. Poodles come in black or apricot. The apricot ones tend to be crabbier than the black ones, who on the other hand do not smell as nice. Though all poodles bark snappily at the slightest provocation, they are particularly inclined to do so when nothing at all is happening. They follow their master by trotting on their stiff little legs without moving the rest of their sausage-shaped trunk. Above all they have venomous little black eyes set deep in their insignificant eye-sockets. Poodles are ugly and stupid, submissive and boastful. They are poodles, after all”
― Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

“All things great are wound up with all things little.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“The 40-hour work week, long considered the gold standard, has quietly and insidiously stretched into 50 to 60 hours. Despite this accepted practice, social commentators and the average person agree that functioning at such a pace can't possibly be good for one's mental or physical health. /So I ask you: if the expanded work-week isn't healthy for someone in good physical condition, how can it possibly be acceptable for someone with a chronic illness? Quite simply, it's not.”
― Rosalind Joffe, Women, Work, and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend!

“As with many life-altering events, an autoimmune illness is almost guaranteed to cause you to re-evaluate your priorities.”
― Joan Friedlander, Women, Work, and Autoimmune Diease