I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially English about it.

- Barbara Pym

I imagine the proverb about too many cooks spoiling the broth can be applied to writing as well as anything else. The poetical or literary broth is b…

- Barbara Pym

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 …

- Barbara Pym

Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought, as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. Did we really need a cup of tea? …

- Barbara Pym

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 a…

- Barbara Pym

Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.

- Barbara Pym

There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that's all.

- Barbara Pym

Of course it's all right for librarians to smell of drink.

- Barbara Pym

She had always been an unashamed reader of novels.

- Barbara Pym