For, though the room was silent, the silence of half a hundred cats is a peculiar thing, like fifty individual silences all piled one on top of another.

Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed them both. I could not bear the way they mocked me.

Oh! And they read English novels! David! Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not trouble yourself. It is nothing but a lot of nonsense about girls with fanciful names getting married.

Where have they gone?" "Wherever magicians used to go. Behind the sky. On the other side of the rain.

Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange.Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might, ” he admitted, “but a gentleman never could.

But the other Ministers considered that to employ a magician was one thing, novelists were quite another and they would not stoop to it.

It seemed that it was not only live magicians which Mr. Norrell despised. He had taken the measure of all the dead ones too and found them wanting.

Ha!" cried Dr John contemptuously. "Magic! That is chiefly used for killing Frenchmen, is it not?

It is the right of a traveller to vent their frustration at every minor inconvenience by writing of it to their friends.

[A] smile is the most becomingornament that any lady can wear.

I have been quite put out of temper this morning and someone ought to die for it.

In the race of life, what matters is to complete your race.

You can't criticize people for wanting to have a decent life or wanting to live decently.

It is a paradox. Life is that way. God designed it that way. I believe I met him once. He was full of mischief.

Everyone is against Harry (Truman) except the people.

Profound minds are the most likely to think lightly of the resources of human reason, and it is the superficial thinker who is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief.

Each film is difficult, in its own particular way. There's a unique set of challenges on every movie.

There's no good idea that cannot be improved on.

I think you can be mature without being grown-up. You can also be grown-up without being mentally mature. One of them is forced, while the other one is your choice.

Refuse to accept the narrative of history laid down by presidents, prime ministers, generals and journalists.