It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Arrival often brings nothing but a sense of desolation and disappointment.

It was good and nothing good is ever lost.

Life is so extraordinary. Wonderful surprises are just around the most unexpected corners.

Writing is work, but it's also a compulsion, and once you get your characters on paper, you can't abandon them. You have to respond to them.

Other people's houses were always fascinating. As soon as you went through the door for the first time, you got the feel of the atmosphere, and so discovered something about the personalities of the people who lived there.

She thought of the last couple of years: the boredom, the narrowness of existence, the dearth of anything to look forward to. Yet now, in a single instant, the curtains had been whipped aside, and the windows been thrown open onto a brillant view that had been there, waiting for her, all the time. A view, moreover, laden with the most marvellous possibilities and opportunities.

I wasn't good enough. I had a little talent but not enough. There is nothing more discouraging than having just a little talent.