the English, although partakers in the most variable and quixotic climate in the world, never become used to its vagaries, but comment upon them with shock and resentment as if all their lives had been spent in the predictable monsoon.

There are only two periods in a woman's life when she hopes to be taken for older than she is, under sixteen and over ninety.

I really do literally put myself into a character's shoes.

I've had two proposals since I've been a widow. I am a wonderful catch, you know. I have a lot of money.

It is not so much true that the world loves a lover as that the lover loves all the world.

The worst has happened ... it's rather liberating.

I get a lot of letters from people. They say "I want to be a writer. What should I do?" I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it.