At the age of twelve I was finding the world too small: it appeared to me like a dull, trim back garden, in which only trivial games could be played.

Characters should on the whole, be under rather than over articulate. What they intend to say should be more evident, more striking (because of its greater inner importance to the plot) than what they arrive at saying.

I think the main thing, don't you, is to keep the show on the road.

Disappointment tears the bearable film off life.

It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets.

Good general-purpose manners nowadays may be said to consist in knowing how much you can get away with.

But surely love wouldn't get so much talked about if there were not something in it?