“Saying someone is religious is heard in most of America as a compliment, a reassuring affirmation that someone will be moral, ethical, and after a few glasses of wine, a freak in the bedroom.”

“There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone cares.”

“To say someone is a vision is to pay them a great compliment. If you say that they look a sight it is a grave insult.”

“I once heard someone say morality was method. Do you hold with that? I suppose you wouldn't. You would say that morality was vested in the aim, I expect. Difficult to know what one's aims are, that's the trouble, specially if you're British.”

“When someone says, 'I admire your character,' I never know whether the person is talking about my ethics or referring to someone in one of my books.”

“The people of North America have little idea of religion, but they have strict public morality. The Latin people are without morality but they are highly religious.”