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You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree, by the rings of friendship formed by the expanding central trunk. In the course of my history, not love or marriage so much as friendship has promoted growth.

— Mary McCarthy How I Grew (1987)

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Source: Ch. 1
Work: How I Grew, 1987
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mary McCarthy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.