Marriage Quote by Colleen McCullough

Domestic bliss, skewered with a tailor’s pin. McCullough’s line works because it borrows the syrupy language of marital compliment ("very good") and flips it into a joke about self-sabotage. The tiny feet aren’t really the point; they’re a prop that lets her stage a comic inversion of the classic spouse-as-praiser dynamic. What begins as a husband’s affectionate observation ends as a verdict on the speaker’s tendency to speak too soon, too sharply, too honestly.

The intent is disarming: by turning "foot-in-mouth" into bodily slapstick, McCullough smuggles in a sharper truth about intimacy. A partner often knows your worst habits with an accuracy that would feel cruel if said straight. So the husband’s quip lands as both teasing and diagnostic, the kind of joke that signals familiarity without demanding a fight. It’s a marital micro-contract: I’ll name your flaw, you’ll laugh, and we’ll keep moving.

Subtextually, there’s an author’s self-portrait here. McCullough built a career on big feelings and bigger choices; this punchline suggests the cost of candor, especially for a woman whose public voice is expected to be agreeable. The humor becomes a social lubricant and a shield: she can admit to missteps without offering an apology tour. Context matters too: coming from a novelist, the line winks at the peril of language itself. Words are powerful, but they’re also how you trip, publicly, and then have to live with the echo.