Novels give you the matrix of emotions, give you the flavour of a time in a way formal history cannot.

I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married.

Bed is the best place for reading, thinking, or doing nothing.

Envy has always hidden behind moral indignation.

An interim report - that is what an autobiography is.

Laughter is by definition healthy.

The kitten was six weeks old. It was enchanting, a delicate fairy-tale cat, whose Siamese genes showed in the shape of the face, ears, tail, and the subtle lines of its body. [...] She sat, a tiny thing, in the middle of a yellow carpet, surrounded by five worshipppers, not at all afraid of us. Then she stalked around that floor of the house, inspecting every inch of it, climbed up on to my bed, crept under the fold of a sheet, and was at home.