Knowing how bad you could be is a great encouragement to being good.

I would rather stare at the wall for half an hour than watch an episode of any of the 53,801 Australian soap operas now cluttering up UK TV.

Actors, said Granny, witheringly. As if the world weren't full of enough history without inventing more.

Now that their long war was over, they could get on with the proper concern of all civilised nations, which is to prepare for the next one.

Inside every sane person there's a madman struggling to get out," said the shopkeeper. "That's what I've always thought. No one goes mad quicker than a totally sane person.

It was also a room full of books and made of books. There was no actual furniture; this is to say, the desk and chairs were shaped out of books. It looked as though many of them were frequently referred to, because they lay open with other books used as bookmarks.

Theres no stink more sorrorful than the stink of wet, burnt paper. It means: the end.