Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.

...the true spirit of gastronomic joylessness. Porridge fills the Englishman up, and prunes clear him out.

Humility is a quality for which I have only a limited admiration. In many phases of life it is a great mistake and degenerates into defensiveness or hypocrisy.

I have almost completed a long novel, but it is unpublishable until my death and England's.

How do I know what I have to say wntil I see what I have said?

We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.

The sort of poetry I seek only resides in objects Man can't touch - like England 's grass network of lanes 100 years ago, but today he can destroy them and only Lord Farrer keeps him from doing it.