Here was an occasion, she thought, for indulging in that deliberate rudeness which only persons with habitually good manners have the right to commit.

Happiness can never hope to command so much interest as distress.

A straight nose is a great help if one wishes to look serious'.

Well,' said Mrs Smiling, 'it sounds an appalling place, but in a different way from all the others. I mean, it does sound interesting and appalling, while the others just sound appalling.

She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple.

By god, DH Lawrence was right when he said there must be a dumb, dark, dull, bitter belly-tension between a man and a woman, and how else could this be achieved save in the long monotony of marriage?

I do not object to the phenomena, but I do object to the parrot.