He really is terribly heavy going. Like running up hill in roller skates.

There is a school of thought that believes that sleep is for the night. You appear to be out to disprove them.

A gentleman ... sleeps at his work. That's what work's for. Why do you think they have the SILENCE notices in the library? So as not to disturb me in my little nook behind the biography shelves.

If you are flattering a woman, it pays to be a little more subtle. You don't have to bother with men, they believe any compliment automatically.

He really is terribly heavy going. Like running up hill in roller skates.

What I find interesting is how close you can run the laughter along the seam of seriousness, and occasionally cross it, so that half the house genuinely doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Custard pie humour is fairly universal, but at the other end, which I'm more interested in, there's the humour that hovers on the darkness, that walks in the shadow of something else, not always that obvious.

The darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter. And vice versa.