Saul Bellow on the importance of doctors’ wives

(From More Die of Heartbreak:) ….”and a wife, especially a physician’s wife, can make or break a man. I don’t care if you’re a genius diagnostician, if you wife is one of those selfish neurotics that won’t go out to people warmly and entertain, you’ve never have a first-class practice. You’ll end up taking blood pressures for an insurance company or managing coal miners’ prostates. A woman has to be able to bring together the right people and make conversation.”