I am certainly an ought and not a must.

Lucy was suffering from the most grievous wrong which this world has yet discovered: diplomatic advantage had been taken of her sincerity, of her craving for sympathy and love. Such a wrong is not easily forgotten. Never again did she expose herself without due consideration and precaution against rebuff. And such a wrong may react disastrously upon the soul.

Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.

Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things.

We are all like Scheherazade's husband, in that we want to know what happens next.

I'd far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out.