"The food factor should always be massive: four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef hash with diced chillies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert. Right, and there should also be two or three newpapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next twenty-four hours and at least one source of good music. All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked."

Hunter S. Thompson on breakfast

Careers and babies

Have your babies while you're young. I know too many women whose "careers" got in the way of childbirth until, presented with the unassailable fact of their fading fertility, they had one precious child, a child without siblings, without cousins its own age, with a mother never destined to acquire the experience of more than one child, the experience to relax, to let go, to let the child be a child.

What is it about women that they consider a "career" to be more worthwhile than having children? So they put it off and put it off, climbing up some meaningless, greasy pole, unsatisfied, deluded in the belief that it's all still ahead of them whereas, once they're past 30, it's actually all behind them and what lies ahead is medical procedures or barrenness

Have your children young, while you have strength and vigour and suppleness, while you can cope, while your grandparents are still alive. Have your children and then have your "career". You think because you're in your late 30s or early 40s your life is over, a career is unavailable to you? Of course not; you are at the peak of your powers; the world is your oyster. But, the other way around? That way lies desperation and delusion and, ultimately, failure