We are American at puberty. We die French.

Pray always for all the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.

The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant they are.

Words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity.

The sky over London was glorious, ochre and madder, as though a dozen tropic suns were simultaneously setting round the horizon . . . Everywhere the shells sparkled like Christmas baubles.

Beer commercials are so patriotic: Made the American Way. What does that have to do with America? Is that what America stands for? Feeling sluggish and urinating frequently?

Professional reviewers read so many bad books in the course of duty that they get an unhealthy craving for arresting phrases.