Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"Thinking of death--strange, beautiful, terrible and a long way off--made me feel happier than ever."

"Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can."

"Truthfulness so often goes with ruthlessness."

"I think it [religion] is an art, the greatest one; an extension of the communion all the other arts attempt."

"I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness."

"I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life."

"Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me."