“... time had a way of moulding people into shapes they themselves no longer recognised ...”

“Romance makes people forget themselves, do silly things”

“It hardly needs to be said: sooner or later secrets have a way of making themselves known.”

“One of the things I have come to know most surely in my work is that the belief system acquired in childhood is never fully escaped; it may submerge itself for a while, but it always returns in times of need to lay claim to the soul it shaped.”

“It's a terrible thing, isn't it, the way we throw people away?”

“The house, she'd explained to them many times, had spoken to her; she'd listened, and it turned out they'd understood one another very well indeed. Greenacres was an imperious old lady, a little worn, to be sure, cranky in her own way-but who wouldn't be?”

“It's a funny thing, character, the way it brands people as they age, rising from within to leave its scar.”