Kingsley Amis

"[I]ts human to choose any sort of path into the future rather than face the long road back to what youve left behind."

"[W]hats the point of growing a beard if youre not going to be a little bit free and easy?"

"A bad review may spoil your breakfast, but you shouldnt allow it to spoil your lunch."

"I was a shit when I met you. I still am in lots of ways. But because of you Ive had to give up trying to be a dedicated, full-time shit. I couldnt make it, hadnt the strength of character. Which is a pity in a way, because when you fall back into the ranks of the failed shits or amateur shits or incidental shits you start taking on responsibility for other people."

"As far back as she could remember, she had gone in for day-dreams about what clothes, jewellery and the like she would wear if, like her admired and adored Marie Antoinette, she were somehow to find herself facing public execution."

"I told myself that I could soon start to relish the state of being alone […], only to find as usual that I was stuck with myself.[…] Twos company, which is bad enough in all conscience, but ones a crowd."