" For some time, my life had been an ugly, roiling mess, but I was going to pull it all together at the last minute. (It was better this way! I had acted out before I had children.) I had managed to solve the Jane Austen problems that women have been confronting for centuries—securing a provider for your children, finding a mate to pass the time with, and creating a convivial home—in an entirely unconventional way. I’d had to relinquish the poisonous heat of my affair, but with every day that felt like less of a sacrifice. "

― Ariel Levy , The Rules Do Not Apply