Paul Scott

“The calendar was a mathematical progression with arbitrary surprises.”

“Rumours began with the whispered gossip of native servants and spread quickly to the rest of the population.”

“English is not spare. But it is beautiful. It cannot be called truthful because its subtleties are infinite. It is the language of a people who have probably earned their reputation for perfidy and hypocrisy because their language itself is so flexible, so often light-headed with statements which appear to mean one thing one year and quite a different thing the next.”