Things were not tragic for us then, because although we cared passionately we didn't care deeply.

April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year.

Among the many problems which beset the novelist, not the least weighty is the choice of the moment at which to begin his novel.

Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong-Kong.

Every garden-maker should be an artist along his own lines. That is the only possible way to create a garden, irrespective of size or wealth.

I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. Oh my dear, I can’t be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly.You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don’t love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defences. And I don’t really resent it.

Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming.