Anyone who has the temerity to write about Jane Austen is aware of [two] facts: first, that of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness; second, that there are twenty-five elderly gentlemen living in the neighbourhood of London who resent any slight upon her genius as if it were an insult to the chastity of their aunts.

I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time.

It is the duty of the writer to describe.

I detest the masculine point of view. I am bored by his heroism, virtue, and honour. I think the best these men can do is not talk about themselves anymore.

I got out this diary, & read as one always does read one's own writing, with a kind of guilty intensity.

war is a man's game ... the killing machine has a gender and it is male.

But nevertheless, the fact remained, it was almost impossible to dislike anyone if one looked at them.