This Much is True

by Miriam Margolyes

it is the vulnerabilities in people, rather more than their strengths, which allow us to love them.

I quote Miss Plowman: ‘Remember, vowels carry the emotion in a word – consonants carry the sense.’

I pick the people in my life because of who they are, not because of who they sleep with.

After one of Heather’s research visits abroad, she caught a respiratory virus. It developed into the illness called chronic fatigue syndrome and has never left her. At one time in the nineties, it got so bad she couldn’t walk or stand, and I had to feed her. Many thousands of people never recover and doctors don’t yet know what causes it. Indeed, for many years it wasn’t recognised as an illness.

Life is sweeter shared.

You shouldn’t fear failure. It’s not something that we relish – no one wants to fail – but it may be something we have to endure in order to improve and succeed.

The latest blow is spinal stenosis, a debilitating condition which makes it difficult to walk or even stand for any amount of time without severe pain.