I wanted to know more about the young ... strange that though they laughed so loud, they so seldom smiled. Perhaps laughter was involuntary whereas smiling was part of an attitude to life.

It's odd how different a house feels when one is alone in it. It makes it easier to think rather private thoughts.

I know all about the facts of life, and I don't think much of them.

Perhaps what you call conventionality, I call decency.

When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it - or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, but I don't suppose many people try to do it.

Stew's so comforting on a rainy day.

The one Bach piece I learnt made me feel I was being repeatedly hit on the head with a teaspoon.