“Why was it that cheering expressions were invariably so infuriating?”

“But that initial, comet-blazing-across-the-sky, Big Idea is only the beginning. Each book is composed of a mosaic of thousands of little ideas, ideas that invariably come to me at two in the morning when my alarm is set for seven.”

“They were a strange and mercantile people, these Americans. One never knew what they might come up with next.”

“When they arrived at Parva Magna, everyone agreed that it was quite a good thing thatthe newly married couple had managed to find shelter in the storm, although there was someconfusion as to why it had taken them a full three days to make their way fifteen miles.”

“Her eyes were as hard and bright as stars. Not the pretty sort that poets mooned about, but the kind that made men's destinies. The Orchid Affair”

“Gentlemen do so appreciate a nicely trimmed décolletage.”

“The French just said he was a damned nuisance. Or they would have had they the good fortune to speak English. Instead being French they were forced to say it in their own language.”