The craft of the novelist does lie first of all in story-telling.

nothing is more restful than conformity.

In big houses in which things are done properly, there is always the religious element. The diurnal cycle is observed with more feeling when there are servants to do the work.

When I read a story, I relive the moment from which it sprang. A scene burned itself into me, a building magnetized me, a mood orseason of Nature's penetrated me, history suddenly appeared to me in some tiny act, or a face had begun to haunt me before I glanced at it.

Yes, writing a novel, my boy, is like driving pigs to market - you have one of them making a bolt down the wrong lane; another won't get over the right stile.

Silence sat in the taxi, as though a stranger had got in.

in my experience one thing you don't learn from is anything anyone set up to be a lesson; what you are to know you pick up as you go along.