Sylvia Townsend Warner

“Like the cat who eats the canary, I'm trying to look satisfied but not smug.”

“It is best to be ruthless with the past.”

“If one is a witch, one has to be a witch; one cannot be something else instead.”

“A woman of 40 is waiting for the postman with a hope of which a girl of 20 is incapable.”

“But there is no substance in the world so fine as the corporate existence of a cat.”

“For the only safe harbour in this life is vulnerability.”

“One can live without idealism, perhaps, but not without mystery.”

“It is one of the injustices of fate that an old person is never credited with having been a young person.”

“I believe that the first thing I was conscious of was being read to.”

“Never be afraid of the door that has been left unlocked.”

“One can't be a proper witch unless one has a proper dark.”

“If you have a statue in the city square, you are a victor, a hero. If you have a statue in a museum, you are a defeated monster.”

“Happiness is a wine, which is stored in a cellar, and it is not for today’s drinking.”

“Gardening is a kind of disease. It infects you, you cannot escape it.”