There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.

How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should try it.

Of course it's all right for librarians to smell of drink.

I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially English about it.

The burden of keeping three people in toilet paper seemed to me rather a heavy one.

My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the 'stream of consciousness' type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.

I was so astonished that I could think of nothing to say, but wondered irrelevantly if I was to be caught with a teapot in my hand on every dramatic occasion.

There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that's all.

She had always been an unashamed reader of novels.

There are some things too dreadful to be revealed, and it is even more dreadful how, in spite of our better instincts,we long to know about them.

Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.

With the possible exception of clothes, beauty salons and Frank Sinatra, there are few subjects all women agree upon.

Whoever said “Success is 80% Joy and 20% Hardwork” must have chased the latter 20% not ignoring the first 80%. Follow the Joy route and the power is already lost.

When you don’t learn the best, you will teach the worst.

The same principles that make up a good story also make up a good life.

If you only do what you want to do, you won't get there.

What’s the secret to success? It’s no secret. You need a winning attitude, honesty and integrity, and a burning desire to succeed.

When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.

The thing about Iran is there are many political factions and it's not quite the dictatorial, authoritarian state with one person always making every single decision.

I hate being out there with those garbage men. They don't get you the ball.