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446bba3
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My hand is very tired but I want to go on writing. I keep resting and thinking. All day I have been two people - the me imprisoned in yesterday and the me out here on the mound; and now there is a third me trying to get in - the me in what is going to happen next.
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Dodie Smith |
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ed27e99
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Americans do seem to say things which make the English notice England.
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Dodie Smith |
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a075bf8
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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.
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Dodie Smith |
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d5bb827
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surely I could give him--a sort of contentment... That isn't enough to give. Not for the giver.
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Dodie Smith |
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bea8970
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I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring - I wrote my very best poem while sitting on the hen-house.
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Dodie Smith |
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00eb374
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Thinking of death--strange, beautiful, terrible and a long way off--made me feel happier than ever.
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Dodie Smith |
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e481418
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I found it quite easy to carry on a casual conversation it was as if my real feelings were down fathoms deep in my mind and what we said was just a feathery surface spray.
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Dodie Smith |
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1a52fd5
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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.
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humor
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Dodie Smith |
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756d294
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While I have been writing I have lived in the past, the light of it has been all around me...
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Dodie Smith |
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83ca46c
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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.
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Dodie Smith |
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f27c84d
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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.
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books
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Dodie Smith |
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025b5d1
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The tea was a comfort - and by that time I more than needed comfort.
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Dodie Smith |
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ffb3e8a
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Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.
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Dodie Smith |
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4e42606
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Everything in the least connected with him has value for me; if someone even mentions his name it is like a little present to me-and I long to mention it myself
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Dodie Smith |
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db6a5c7
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I could marry the Devil himself if he had some money.
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Dodie Smith |
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c39b69f
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Miserable people cannot afford to dislike each other
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Dodie Smith |
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658fa3d
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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.
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Dodie Smith |
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f9c0d53
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Oh, wise young judge.
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Dodie Smith |
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924c5d1
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A mist is rolling over the fields. Why is a summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?
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sadness
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Dodie Smith |
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c06f79c
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I get the feeling I do on finishing a novel with a brick-wall happy ending - I mean the kind of ending when you never think any more about the characters.
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Dodie Smith |
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39f93dc
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Walking down Belmotte was the oddest sensation-- every step took us deeper into the mist until at last it closed over our heads. It was like being drowned in the ghost of water.
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Dodie Smith |
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07c2249
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He laughed a little, in an odd, nervous kind of way. "Because if I don't get going soon, the whole impetus may die--and if that happens, well, I really shall consider a long, restful plunge into insanity. Sometimes the abyss yawns very attractively."
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Dodie Smith |
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4b59ac7
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Art could state very little - it's whole business is to evoke responses.
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Dodie Smith |
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79fff4c
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Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.
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i-capture-the-castle
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Dodie Smith |
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e7f42c1
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I was so happy that I wanted to be kind to everyone in the world.
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Dodie Smith |
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1e1cf74
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What I'd really hate would be the settled feeling, with nothing but happiness to look forward to. Of course no life is perfectly happy- Rose's children will probably get ill, the servants may be difficult, perhaps dear Mrs. Cotton will prove to be the teeniest fly in the ointment. (I should like to know what fly was originally in what ointment.) There are hundreds of worries and even sorrows that may come along, but- I think what I really m..
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Dodie Smith |
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f9ac939
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It isn't a bit of use my pretending I'm not crying, because I am... Pause to mop up. Better now. Perhaps it would really be rather dull to be married and settled for life. Liar! It would be heaven.
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marriage
heaven
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Dodie Smith |
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abbaee5
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All I really want to write about is what happened just before he left. But if I let myself start with that I might forget some of the things which came first. And every word he said is of deepest value to me.
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euphoria
excitement
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Dodie Smith |
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fbcdc0e
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perhaps it is loving that counts, not the being loved in return- that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness.
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Dodie Smith |
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5474eed
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there is something revolting about the way girls' minds so often jump to marriage long before they jump to love. And most of those minds are shut to what marriage really means.
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Dodie Smith |
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ffc238e
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It is odd how different a house feels when one is alone in it.
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Dodie Smith |
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a3e63d9
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People do look different with their eyes closed, their features seem so much more sculptured.
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Dodie Smith |
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7c621ad
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Father says hot water can be as stimulating as an alcoholic drink and though I never come by one...I can well believe it.
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water
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Dodie Smith |
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072a792
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When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing a book as well as reading it - or rather, it is like living it.
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Dodie Smith |
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910127b
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Prayer's a very tricky business.
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Dodie Smith |
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32347fd
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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.
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Dodie Smith |
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b64339b
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I suddenly knew that religion, God - something beyond everyday life - was there to be found, provided one is really willing. And I saw that though what I felt in the church was only imagination, it was a step on the way; because imagination itself can be a kind of willingness - a pretense that things are real, due to one's longing for them. It struck me that this was somehow tied up with what the Vicar said about religion being an extension..
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god
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Dodie Smith |
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de267b6
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but it is always dreadful when the pictures in front of one's eyes become meaningless and the real word is there instead and seems meaningless, too.
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Dodie Smith |
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344d95a
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My God - it's a green child!" said the American. "What is this place - the House of Usher?"
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Dodie Smith |
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bb40060
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As long as I live I shall remember that silent minute.
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Dodie Smith |
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8078c56
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it seemed an awful waste that we weren't in love with each other.
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Dodie Smith |
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be48006
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Am I really admitting that my sister is determined to marry a man she has only seen once and doesn't much like the look of? It is half real and half pretense - and I have an idea that it is a game most girls play when they meet an eligible young men. They just...wonder.
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marriage
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Dodie Smith |
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cdc8981
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How can a young man like to wear a beard?
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Dodie Smith |
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3c54d28
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I am surprised to see how much I have written; with stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.
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Dodie Smith |