Dulcie always found a public library a little upsetting, for one saw so many odd people there.
BARBARA PYMShe had always been an unashamed reader of novels.
More Barbara Pym Quotes
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I love Evensong. There’s something sad and essentially English about it.
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I was so astonished that I could think of nothing to say, but wondered irrelevantly if I was to be caught with a teapot in my hand on every dramatic occasion.
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Once outside the magic circle the writers became their lonely selves, pondering on poems, observing their fellow men ruthlessly, putting people they knew into novels; no wonder they were without friends.
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She had always been an unashamed reader of novels.
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Novel writing is a kind of private pleasure, even if nothing comes of it in worldly terms.
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I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced.
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My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the ‘stream of consciousness’ type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.
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There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.
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You know Mildred would never do anything wrong or foolish. I reflected a little sadly that this was only too true and hoped I did not appear too much that kind of person to others. Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing.
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The burden of keeping three people in toilet paper seemed to me rather a heavy one.
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Of course it’s all right for librarians to smell of drink.
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Perhaps I need some shattering experience to awaken and inspire me, or at least to give me some emotion to recollect in tranquility. But how to get it? Sit here and wait for it or go out and seek it? . . . I expect it will be sit and wait.
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What a good thing there is no marriage or giving in marriage in the after-life; it will certainly help to smooth things out.
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It was odd how one found oneself making trivial conversation on important occasions. Perhaps it was because one could not say what was really in one’s mind.
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I stretched out my hand towards the little bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comfortable bedside reading.
BARBARA PYM