Talking to women about birth can be polarizing.

Every time you have a carrot instead of a cookie, every time you go to the gym instead of going to the movies, that's a costly investment in your health. But how much you want to invest is going to depend on how much longer you expect to live in the future, even if you don't make those investments.

Even if you are planning a birth with an epidural, the evidence suggests that a doula can help make things go much more smoothly.

I've always loved doing research. I remember doing a research project on the Babylonian numeral system in the eighth grade and thinking, 'This is pretty awesome - is this really a job you can have?' This led me toward a career as an academic, although it took me until college to realise that economics was the right field.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Doing art at Marlborough, where I went to school, was really quite tough, and I knew that it wasn't the direction I wanted to go. I'd rather show art and give people the joy of seeing it.

Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind.