Knowing few children of my age with whom to compare notes, I envied the children of literature to whom interesting things were always happening.

It is somehow reassuring to discover that the word travel is derived from travail, denoting the pains of childbirth.

[On the United States:] A nation which does not appreciate that the simple elocution exercise 'Merry Mary married hairy Harry' contains not one but three vowel sounds.

Now there is a society where the funeral industry got completely out of control.

You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.

A thirteen-year-old is a kaleidoscope of different personalities, if not in most ways a mere figment of her own imagination. At that age, what and who you are depends largely on what book you happen to be reading at the moment.

Knowing few children of my age with whom to compare notes, I envied the children of literature to whom interesting things were always happening.