In my eighties, my best friends are in their fifties, and I have many friends at university. It keeps one young, and up with the vocabulary. That's terribly important, especially for a writer.

They may turn out to be a great disappointment, or perhaps they may be full of enchanting surprises.

That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of life they don't understand.

Twenty years ago, I was living in a lovely cottage on the edge of Dartmoor but I couldn't afford to run a car.

Unimaginative people are spared quite a lot. They're often much happier, because they don't go through all the variety of conceptions of the person they love.

I always read that men don't like intelligent girls, but I've always found the reverse.

People try much less hard to make a marriage work than they used to fifty years ago. Divorce is easier.

Rebecca is an example of how not to manage men. The rules of the game never change, it requires subtlety.

I was sent to a finishing school, which didn't last long when mother found out how badly chaperoned we were. Then I 'came out' before going to a domestic science school.

Unimaginative people are spared quite a lot.

I have a garden, and I'm passionately interested in young people.

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes

The vitality of a new movement in Art must be gauged by the fury it arouses.

Who thinks of justice unless he knows injustice?

Each of his son's had been his favorite child.

I've never let anyone talk me into not believing in myself

Jobs mean freedom for workers to support their families.

I've known Chevy Chase for so long, I actually knew him when he was funny!

Some asked me where the rubies grew, And nothing I did say; But with my finger pointed to The lips of Julia.

My legs are long but my body is too short.

The urge is to create. The outcome belongs to God.