Hollywood money isn't money. It's congealed snow, melts in your hand, and there you are.

Gratitude—the meanest and most snivelling attribute in the world.

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

Good work, Mary. We all knew you had it in you.

The two most beautiful words in the English language are "check enclosed."

I was the toast of two continents: Greenland and Australia.

... if this world were anything near what it should be there would be no more need of a Book Week than there would be a of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.

If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills you.

It's not the tragedies that kill us, it's the messes.