Since we cannot hope for order, let us withdraw with style from the chaos.

When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink just as before. Do you think this is odd?

I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop.

We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out we come, bloodied and squalling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there's only one direction. And time is its only measure.

Life is a gamble, at terrible odds - if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.

It is better to be quotable than to be honest.

It's no trick loving somebody at their best. Love is loving them at their worst.