The present has its élan because it is always on the edge of the unknown and one misunderstands the past unless one remembers that this unknown was o… - V. S. Pritchett

On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves, helplessly, unselectively. They are above the primness and good taste of declining to give themselves away.

How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit.

Most comic writers like to think they could play it straight if only their public would let them. Waugh is able to be grave without difficulty for he has always been comic for serious reasons. He has his own, almost romantic sense of propriety.