Dodie Smith

“It isn't a bit of use my pretending I'm not crying, because I am... Pause to mop up. Better now.Perhaps it would really be rather dull to be married and settled for life. Liar! It would be heaven.”

“A mist is rolling over the fields. Why is a summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?”

“I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.”

“My God - it's a green child!" said the American. "What is this place - the House of Usher?”

“The family, that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor in our innermost hearts never quite wish to.”

“Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.”

“Did you think of anything when Miss Marcy said Scoatney Hall was being re-opened? I thought of the beginning of Pride and Prejudice – where Mrs. Bennet says 'Netherfield Park is let a last.' And then Mr. Bennet goes over to call on the rich new owner.”

“I go backwards and forwards, recapturing the past, wondering about the future—and, most unreasonably, I find myself longing for the past more than for the future.”