A thousand little civilities create tenderness in time.

Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it, a slight physical antipathy most probably helps.

I find women friends easier. Openness is obvious (I like to think), undemandingness is total (I hope), loyalty invulnerable (I imagine). Intuition moves without prejudice, emotion is undisguised, there is no prestige involved. Conflicts which arise are trusting and not infectious. Together we have danced every imaginable turn: suffering, tenderness, passion, foolishness, betrayal, anger, comedy, tedium, love, lies, joy, jealousies, adultery, overstepping boundaries, good faith. And here are even more: tears, eroticism, mere eroticism, disasters, triumphs, troubles, abuse, fights, anxiety, pining, eggs, sperm, bleeding, departure, panties. Here are even more - best to finish before the rails run out - impotence, lechery, terror, the proximity of death, death itself, black nights, sleepless nights, white nights, music, breakfasts, breasts, lips, pictures. Turn towards the camera and behold another jumble of images: skin, dog, rituals, roast duck, whale steak, bad oysters, cheating and fiddling, rapes, fine clothes, jewellery, touches, kisses, shoulders, hips, strange lights, streets, towns, rivals, seducers, hairs in the comb, long letters, explanations, all that laughter, ageing, aches, spectacles, hands, hands, hands.

...there was always a sort of tacit understanding among women, born of the solidarity of the sex, that they should discover or invent lovers for each other...

There’s a whole economy of kindness Possible in the world; befriend a friend And the chance of it’s increased and multiplied.

The signature of a truly enviable woman is the tenacity and continuity of her women friends.

Small attentions make great friends.

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.

She is kind to herself first.

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.

There is nothing so fine as a new friend, for in time they become the most precious of all the Comforter's gifts — old friends!

It is those who injure women who get the most kindness from them.

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.

I would rather have your friendship than the love of any other woman in the world.