“There is no singular meaning of wife. That is the point. That is its meaning. To see the wife fully through a multi-faceted lens is one of the central challenges facing society in the twenty-first century. To do this, new scripts are required that employ wife as a verb and as a gender-neutral concept. These are essential if we are to create necessary new narratives, new ways of living as women and men together.”

“My cousin Roger once told me, on the eve of his third wedding, that he felt marriage was addictive. Then he corrected himself. I mean early marriage, he said. The very start of a marriage. It's like a whole new beginning. You're entirely brand-new people; you haven't made any mistakes yet. You have a new place to live and new dishes and this new kind of, like, identity, this 'we' that gets invited everywhere together now. Why, sometimes your wife will have a brand-new name, even.”

“Don't you see? It is a new age. It requires a new evil. And I am that new evil.”

“Come along, my brave one. Your wife and son want to see you.”

“If ever two were one, then surely we.If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;If ever wife was happy in a man,Compare with me, ye women, if you canI prize thy love more than whole mines of Gold.Or all the riches that the East doth hold.My love is such that rivers cannot quench,Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.Thy love is such I can no way repay,The heavens reward thee manifold repay,Then while we live, in love let's so persevereThat when we live no more, we may live ever.”

“That was one of the worst things about losing your wife, I found: your wife is the very person you want to discuss it all with.”

“If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.”