Anyone who knew the word slattern was worth cultivating as a friend.

One of the marks of a truly great mind, I had discovered, is the ability to feign stupidity on demand.

Whenever I'm with other people, part of me shrinks a little. Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company.

I was an early reader, and my grandmother, who as a child had been forbidden to read by a father who believed books to be frivolous time-wasters, delighted in putting her favorite volumes into her grandchildren's hands.

As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No ... eight days a week.

If poisons were ponies, I'd put my money on cyanide.

It is not unknown for fathers with a brace of daughters to reel off their names in order of birth when summoning the youngest, and I had long ago become accustomed to being called 'Ophelia Daphne Flavia, damn it.