“...with each new book of mine I have always the feeling that this time I have picked a lemon in the garden of literature.”

“I pressed down the mental accelerator. The old lemon throbbed fiercely. I got an idea.”

“I am not always good and noble. I am the hero of this story, but I have my off moments.”

“This is peculiarly an age in which each of us may, if he do but search diligently, find the literature suited to his mental powers.”

“I marmaladed a slice of toast with something of a flourish and I don't suppose I have ever come much closer to saying 'Tra la la' as I did the lathering for I was feeling in mid season form this morning.”

“I don’t know if you have had the same experience, but the snag I always come up against when I’m telling a story is this dashed difficult problem of where to begin it.”

“Are there any books of that sort nowadays? The only ones I ever see mentioned in the papers are about married couples who find life grey, and can't stick each other at any price.”