I could hear rain still pouring from the gutters and a thin branch scraping against one of the windows; but the church seemed completely cut off from the restless day outside--just as I felt cut off from the church. I thought: I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.

Dodie Smith

Categorized in : Rain Church Cutting

I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring.

Dodie Smith

inspiration sitting inspiring

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

Dodie Smith

family heart funny

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

reading writing book

I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life.

Dodie Smith

college want writing

Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.

Dodie Smith

realizing dog friendship

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

together forever heart

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.

Dodie Smith

motivational inspirational love

I like seeing people when they can't see me.

Dodie Smith

seeing people

People's clothes ought to be buried with them.

Dodie Smith

buried clothes people

I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.

Dodie Smith

restlessness stillness

Why is summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?

Dodie Smith

mist autumn summer

I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.

Dodie Smith

real tea thinking

Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.

Dodie Smith

someone-you-love teach suffering

Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.

Dodie Smith

contemplation luxury cost

It is rather exciting to write by moonlight.

Dodie Smith

moonlight exciting writing

Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.

Dodie Smith

ifs writing

The key to all knowledge comes in words of just one syllable, apparently.... There's only the last page left to write on. I'll fill it with words of just one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love.

Dodie Smith

pages keys writing

I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.

Dodie Smith

spring weather morning

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

real character book

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

doe littles father