“Female friendship was one-tenth prevention and nine-tenths cleanup.”
“That's the way it is: life includes a lot of empty space. We are one-tenth living tissue, nine-tenths water; life is one-tenth Here and Now, nine-tenths a history lesson. For most of the time the Here and Now is neither now nor here.”
“Quarkbeasts, for all their fearsome looks, are obedient to a fault. They are nine-tenths velociraptor and kitchen blender and one-tenth Labrador. It was the Labrador tenth that I valued most.”
“I always say perseverance is nine-tenths of any art — not that it's much help to be nine-tenths an artist, of course.”
“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”
“Sacrifice was nine tenths of parenting.”