Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.

What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?

Everything in the least connected with him has value for me; if someone even mentions his name it is like a little present to me-and I long to mention it myself

How can a young man like to wear a beard?

...With stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.

There was a wonderful atmosphere of gentle age, a smell of flowers and beeswax, sweet yet faintly sour and musty; a smell that makes you feel very tender towards the past.

Prayer's a very tricky business.