I have the reputation for having read all of Henry James. Which would argue a misspent youth and middle age.

Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.

The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.

It was Lisa, aged five, whose mother asked her to thank my wife for the peas we had sent them from our garden. 'I thought the peas were awful, I wish you and Mrs. Thurber were dead, and I hate trees,' said Lisa.

Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.

Humourists lead... an existence of jumpiness and apprehension. They sit on the edge of the chair of Literature. In the house of Life they have the feeling that they have never taken off their overcoats.

I have the reputation for having read all of Henry James. Which would argue a misspent youth and middle age.