I have never yet heard any middle-aged man or woman who worked with his or her brains express any regret for the passing of youth.

It is ridiculous to take on a man's job just in order to be able to say that 'a woman has done it - yah!' The only decent reason for tackling a job is that it is your job and you want to do it.

To foment grievance and to set men at variance is the trade by which agitators thrive and journalists make money.

I imagine you come across a number of people who are disconcerted by the difference between what you do feel and what they fancy you ought to feel. It is fatal to pay the smallest attention to them.

I have never regretted Paradise Lost since I discovered that it contained no eggs-and-bacon.

Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. Of course people read them for fun ... But underneath they feed a hunger for justice ... you offer to divert them, and you show them by stealth the orderly world in which we should all try to be living.

The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.