"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"How I wished I lived in a Jane Austen novel!"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Was I the only woman in the world who, at my age - and after a lifetime of quite rampant independence - still did not quite feel grown up?"
— Dodie Smith (The Town in Bloom)

"Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"It is rather exciting to write by moonlight."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I like seeing people when they can't see me."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Ah, but you're the insidious type--Jane Eyre with of touch of Becky Sharp. A thoroughly dangerous girl."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I was wandering around as usual, in my unpleasantly populated sub-conscious..."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it -- or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, but I don't suppose many people try to do it."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper."
— Dodie Smith

"But some characters in books are really real--Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"And no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I wonder if there isn't a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining-board, which I have padded with our dog's blanket and the tea-cosy."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?"

He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening — I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Just to be in love seemed the most blissful luxury I had ever known. The thought came to me that perhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return -- that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness. For a moment I felt that I had discovered a great truth."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"The Devil's out of fashion."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"...I have noticed that when things happen in one's imaginings, they never happen in one's life, so I am curbing myself."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I have really sinned. I am going to pause now, and sit here on the mound repenting in deepest shame..."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Oh, comfortable cocoa!"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I could marry the Devil himself if he had some money."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"People's clothes ought to be buried with them."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Prayer's a very tricky business."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"...surely I could give him--a sort of contentment...

That isn't enough to give. Not for the giver."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I love you, I love you, I love you. ~Cassandra
"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Americans do seem to say things which make the English notice England."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Oh, wise young judge."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Certain unique books seem to be without forerunners or successors as far as their authors are concerned. Even though they may profoundly influence the work of other writers, for their creator they're complete, not leading anywhere."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"How can a young man like to wear a beard?"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Cruel blows of fate call for extreme kindness in the family circle."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I have noticed that rooms which are extra clean feel extra cold"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"And at last father flung the rug off as if it were hampering him and strode over to the table saying, 'cocoa, cocoa!'-- it might have been the most magnificent drink in the world; which, personally, I think it is."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"... for I know I shall be interrupted-- I shall want to be, really, because life is too exciting to sit still for long."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Oh, it is wonderful to wake up in the morning with things to look forward to!"
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I should rather like to tear these last pages out of the book. Shall I? No-a journal ought not to cheat."
— Dodie Smith

"It came to me that Hyde Park has never belonged to London - that it has always been , in spirit, a stretch of countryside; and that it links the Londons of all periods together most magically - by remaining forever unchanged at the heart of a ever-changing town."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"We were restless for ages...After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Thinking of death--strange, beautiful, terrible and a long way off--made me feel happier than ever."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Truthfulness so often goes with ruthlessness. "
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"Stew's so comforting on a rainy day."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"There is something revolting about the way girls' minds so often jump to marriage long before they jump to love."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)

"I believe it is customary to get one's washing over first in baths and bask afterwards; personally, I bask first. I have discovered that the first few minutes are the best and not to be wasted-- my brain always seethes with ideas and life suddenly looks much better than did."
— Dodie Smith (I Capture the Castle)