He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.

One of the surprises of her unoccupied state was the discovery that time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace

It is almost as stupid to let your clothes betray that you know you are ugly as to have them proclaim that you think you are beautiful.

Who's 'they'? Why don't you all get together and be 'they' yourselves?

Dialogue in fiction should be reserved for the culminating moments and regarded as the spray into which the great wave of narrative breaks in curving towards the watcher on the shore.

She wanted, passionately and persistently, two things which she believed should subsist together in any well-ordered life: amusement and respectability.

Yes, you have been away a very long time.' 'Oh, centuries and centuries; so long,' she said, 'that I'm sure I'm dead and buried and this dear old place is heaven.