“In my defence I can only say that her past, too, like mine, like everyone's in fact, was a locked box. Occasionally we allow people a peep, but generally only at the top level. The darker streams of our memories we negotiate alone.”

“The longer one knows people the less relevant it becomes whether or not one liked them initially.”

“We all have chapters we would prefer unpublished.”

“Great grief can be worn charmingly by a beauty and I have seen a lot of gracious dignity at funerals in my time but is my experience that when grief is becoming it is also suspect. Real unhappiness is ugly and wounding and scarring to the soul.”

“Lady Sylvia McCordle: Mr Weissman -- Tell us about the film you're going to make.Morris Weissman: Oh, sure. It's called "Charlie Chan In London". It's a detective story.Mabel Nesbitt: Set in London?Morris Weissman: Well, not really. Most of it takes place at a shooting party in a country house. Sort of like this one, actually. Murder in the middle of the night, a lot of guests for the weekend, everyone's a suspect. You know, that sort of thing.Constance: How horrid. And who turns out to have done it?Morris Weissman: Oh, I couldn't tell you that. It would spoil it for you.Constance: Oh, but none of us will see it.”

“Sigur, unul dintre adevărurile de bază ale vieții este că, in general, lumea te acceptă după cum te evaluezi singur.”

“Los Angeles is a town where status is all and status is only given to success. Dukes and millionaires and playboys by the dozen may arrive and be glad-handed for a time, but they are unwise if they choose to live there because the town is, perhaps even creditably, committed to recognising only professional success, and nothing else, to be of lasting value. The burdensome obligation imposed on all its inhabitants is therefore to present themselves as successes, because otherwise they forfeit their right to respect in that environment ... There is no place in that town for the "interesting failure" or for anyone who is not determined on a life that will be shaped in a upward-heading curve.”