“A good friend is my nearest relation.”
“Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are, and be thankful…”
“Noble dragons don't have friends. The nearest they can get to the idea is an enemy who is still alive.”
“All my friends and relatives have always taken a condescending tone to my writing, and never ceased urging me in a friendly way not to give up real work for the sake of scribbling.”
“Friends are relatives you make for yourself.”
“Ms. McMartin had no close family. Her nearest relative was a distant cousin who had recently died in Shanghai, after a severe allergic reaction to a bowl of turtle and arsenic soup.”