76 Quotes by Gerald Durrell

I can’t be expected to produce deathless prose in an atmosphere of gloom and eucalyptus.

Roses dropped petals that seemed as big and smooth as saucers, flame red, moon and white, glossy, and unwrinkled.

I do wish you wouldn’t argue with me when I’m knitting.

I believe that all children should be surrounded by books and animals.

The owls appeared now, drifting from tree to tree as silently as flakes of soot, hooting in astonishment as the moon rose higher and higher, turning to pink, then gold, and finally riding in a nest of stars, like a silver bubble.

What fools we are, eh? What fools, sitting here in the sun, singing. And of love, too! I am too old for it and you are too young, and yet we waste our time singing about it. Ah, well, let’s have a glass of wine, eh?

We stared at the odd garment and wondered what it was for. ‘What is it?’ asked Larry at length. ‘It’s a bathing costume, of course,’ said Mother. ‘What on earth did you think it was?’ ‘It looks like a badly skinned whale,’ said Larry, peering at it closely.

She lifted her hand again and waved. It seemed to me, in the gloom, that the flowers had moved closer to her, had crowded eagerly about her bed, as though waiting for her to tell them something. A ravaged old queen, lying in state, surrounded by her whispering court of flowers.

Ask the average person his views on snakes and he will, within the space of ten minutes, talk more nonsense than a brace of politicians.