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

Nature is all very well in her place, but she must not be allowed to make things untidy.

Curious how Love destroys every vestige of that politeness which the human race, in its years of evolution, has so painfully acquired.

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

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

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

Well, when I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion but with a modern setting, of course. For the next thirty years or so I shall be collecting material for it. If anyone asks me what I work at, I shall say, 'Collecting material'. No one can object to that.