Of course it's all right for librarians to smell of drink.

Dulcie always found a public library a little upsetting, for one saw so many odd people there.

She had always been an unashamed reader of novels.

Oh, but it was splendid the things women were doing for men all the time, thought Jane. Making them feel, perhaps sometimes by no more than a casual glance, that they were loved and admired and desired when they were worthy of none of these things - enabling them to preen themselves and puff out their plumage like birds and bask in the sunshine of love, real or imagined, it didn't matter which.

The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasure like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.

I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced.

There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that's all.