“Sometimes,' she said, remembering that morning, 'I write poems that are taller than I am”

“Harriet was silent, thinking, and then she said, "It is too hard to be a person. You don't only have to go on and on. You have to be--" she looked for the word she needed and could not find it. Then, "You have to be tall as well," said Harriet.”

“Every piece of writing... starts from what I call a grit... a sight or sound, a sentence or a happening that does not pass away... but quite inexplicably lodges in the mind.”

“I loved Mr. Darcy far more than any of my own husbands.”

“It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.”

“She made a creche outside the Inn. The natives thought it was wonderful, and Sister Honey was gratified by their numbers.Why have the devils with wings come to mock at the poor baby?' asked the children, pointing to the angels.The baby is the Number One Lord Jesus Christ,' Ayah told them.But he hasn't any clothes on! Aren't they going to give Him anything? Not a little red robe? Not a bit of melted butter?'This is His Mother,' said Ayah, showing them the little porcelain Virgin in blue and white and pink. 'He is her child.'That isn't true,' said the women, measuring the baby with their eyes. 'He's too big to be possible. Probably He's a dragon, an evil spirit in the shape of a child, and presently He'll eat up the woman.”

“Funny,' said Harriet to herself. 'The world goes on turning, and it has all these troubles in it.”