The whole thing was like a nine-month ocean voyage to which you never got acclimatized.

She was a lucky woman who had established a happy knack of writing what quite a lot of people wanted to read.

Words, mademoiselle, are only the outer clothing of ideas.

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.

Things go entirely differently from the way you planned them.

You are the patient one, Mademoiselle,' said Poirot to Miss Debenham. She shrugged her shoulders slightly. 'What else can one do?' You are a philosopher, Mademoiselle.' That implies a detached attitude. I think my attitude is more selfish. I have learned to save myself useless emotion.

There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger.