The writing of solid, instructive stuff fortified by facts and figures is easy enough. There is no trouble in writing a scientific treatise on the folk-lore of Central China, or a statistical enquiry into the declining population of Prince Edward Island. But to write something out of one's own mind, worth reading for its own sake, is an arduous contrivance only to be achieved in fortunate moments, few and far in between. Personally, I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.

Each section of the British Isles has its own way of laughing, except Wales, which doesn't.

I admit that when the facts are not good enough, I always exaggerate them.

To write well it is first necessary to have something to say.

There is no doubt that many things in life come to us...at backrounds so to speak. Happiness is one of them.

It's a lie, but Heaven will forgive you for it.

Any two meals at a boarding-house are together less than two square meals.