Helen Simpson > Quotes

“Tea at the Ritz is the last delicious morsel of Edwardian London. The light is kind, the cakes are frivolous and the tempo is calm, confident and leisurely.”
― Helen Simpson, The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea

“Then I reached down into myself and managed to say, 'you should celebrate, your birthday should be celebrated, because the world's a better place with you in it.' May you continue to pile on the years, but with more pleasure from now on.”
― Helen Simpson

“The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-It on the wall in front of my desk saying “Faire et se taire” (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as “Shut up and get on with it.”
― Helen Simpson

“Men conscious of inferiority are always trying to impose themselves on others, because they know that underneath they are cowards or cretins.”
― Helen Simpson

“there are between life partners sliding layers of history, tectonic plates of it shifting over the decades together.”
― Helen Simpson, Cockfosters

“O that I were your lover for a month or two, he murmured,
I would make that pretty heart’s blood of yours ache in a fortnight.”
― Helen Simpson, Four Bare Legs in a Bed

“Sometimes when she woke from a flabbergasting dream Liz would lie very still to see if she could net it before it fled; perfectly still, eyes closed, not moving her head, as if the slightest shift would tip the story-bearing liquid, break its fragile meniscus and spill the night’s elusive catch.”
― Helen Simpson, Cockfosters

“First let me take a piece of chalk and draw a circle round you, so you're safe. There. Now I'll stand guard, keeping a weather eye open for anything threatening, and we can catch up with each other while we wait.”
― Helen Simpson