I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turn into confident ducks.

We're nothing if we're not loved. When you meet somebody who is more important to you than yourself, that has to be the most important thing.

I believed that old people never laughed. I thought they sighed a lot and groaned. They walked with sticks, and they didn't like children on bicycles or roller skates... or with big dogs.

I didn't have a sweet tooth, but I liked butter, and I liked sauces, and I liked wine... and curry... and cheeses.

Is there anything more harsh in this life than to be misjudged, and have one’s motives entirely misunderstood?

Problems don’t solve themselves neatly like that, due to a set of coincidences. Problems are solved by making decisions. Erika had always said that, and he had thought she was being doctrinaire. But it was true. Deciding not to change anything was a decision in itself. He hadn’t fully understood this before.

God, Benny, don’t blow your nose like that in the church. You’d lift half the congregation out of their seats,” Patsy warned.

It was true what they had been saying: if people remember you, then you’re not dead. It was very comforting.

Eve showed Aidan how to rake the range. “I think when we’re married we might have something more modern,” he grumbled. “No, surely with the eight children we can have them stoking it, going up the chimney even.

2. Men like women without make-up. They don’t. They like extremely well and carefully made-up women whose skin has that expensive cultured look which comes from three hours at the dressing table. A woman who is really without make-up would frighten them to death. They regard blotches as eczema, and uneven colouring as a sign of tertiary syphilis.