The theatre is certainly a place for learning about the brevity of human glory: oh all those wonderful glittering absolutely vanished pantomime! Now I shall abjure magic and become a hermit : put myself in a situation where I can honestly say that I have nothing else to do but to learn to be good.

I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.

I just enjoy translating, it's like opening one's mouth and hearing someone else's voice emerge.

The bottomless bitter misery of childhood: how little even now it is understood. Probably no adult misery can be compared with a child's despair.

Of course men play roles, but women play roles too, blanker ones. They have, in the play of life, fewer good lines.

The entry of a child into any situation changes the whole situation.

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.