Why harrow oneself by looking on the worst side?... Because it is sometimes necessary.

Such nice people, the Hillingdons, though she's not really very easy to know, is she? I mean, she's always very pleasant and all that, but one never seems to get to know her better.'

Miss Marple agreed thoughtfully.

'One never knows what she is thinking.'
'Perhaps that is just as well.'
'I beg your pardon?'
'Oh nothing really, only that I've always had the feeling that perhaps her thoughts might be rather disconcerting.

Optimism was for children. Once you reached adulthood then you had to join the rest of the world as a realist - life was a bag of shit you were expected to pay for.

To be part of something one doesn't in the least understand is, I think, one of the most intriguing things about life.

My flute, M. Poirot, is my oldest companion. When everything else fails, music remains.

What can I say at seventy-five? "Thank God for my good life,and for all the love that has been given to me.