Katherine Mansfield

“Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.”

“What do you want most to do? That's what I have to keep asking myself, in the face of difficulties.”

“Whenever I prepare for a journey I prepare as though for death. Should I never return, all is in order.”

“Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.”

“The truth is that every true admirer of the novels cherishes the happy thought that he alone - reading between the lines - has become the secret friend of their author.”

“Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.”

“I do not know why I have such a fancy for this little café. It's dirty and sad, sad. It's not as if it had anything to distinguish it from a hundred others–it hasn't; or as if the same strange types came here every day, whom one could watch from one's corner and recognize and more or less (with a strong accent on the less) get the hang of.But pray don't imagine that those brackets are a confession of my humility before the mystery of the human soul. Not at all; I don't believe in the human soul. I never have. I believe that people are like portmanteaux–packed with certain things, started going, thrown about, tossed away, dumped down, lost and found, half emptied suddenly, or squeezed fatter than ever, until finally the Ultimate Porter swings them on to the Ultimate Train and away they rattle. . . .”

“Saw the sun rise. A lovely apricot sky with flames in it and then solemn pink. Heavens, how beautiful...I feel so full of love to-day after having seen the sun rise.”

“It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.”

“Everything about her was sweet, pale like honey. You would not have been surprised to see a bee caught in the tangles of that yellow hair.”

“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.”

“I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.”

“Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month. Others just go over them.”

“…Oh dear, I sometimes think…whatever would I do if anything happened…But thinking's no good, is it, madam? Thinking won't help. When I find myself doing that, I say to myself, "come along, Ellen! Stop it this moment, my girl! Stop that silly thinking…!”

“Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change.”

“I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on my face.”