Mary Wesley

I don't write for any particular kind of person.

— Mary Wesley

I never really know the title of a book until it's finished.

— Mary Wesley

Unimaginative people are spared quite a lot. They're often much happier, because they don't go through all the variety of conceptions of…

— Mary Wesley

My first husband would never make up his mind in less than five years, so I used to get him to think…

— Mary Wesley

I was sent to a finishing school, which didn't last long when mother found out how badly chaperoned we were. Then I…

— Mary Wesley

Imagination which comes into play in falling in love is different from any other. Certainly in my case, and I've fallen in…

— Mary Wesley

It seemed sensible to move to a market town where I could walk everywhere.

— Mary Wesley

They may turn out to be a great disappointment, or perhaps they may be full of enchanting surprises.

— Mary Wesley

I always read that men don't like intelligent girls, but I've always found the reverse.

— Mary Wesley

That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of…

— Mary Wesley

You know what it's like to persuade a pigheaded child to do something they don't want to. If they hear the same…

— Mary Wesley

We're all like children. We may think we grow up, but to me, being grown up is death, stopping thinking, trying to…

— Mary Wesley

Looking back, I understand that I was teaching myself to write.

— Mary Wesley

People try much less hard to make a marriage work than they used to fifty years ago. Divorce is easier.

— Mary Wesley

Writing Part of the Scenery has been a very different experience. I have been reminded of people and events, real and imaginary…

— Mary Wesley

I have a garden, and I'm passionately interested in young people.

— Mary Wesley

Unimaginative people are spared quite a lot.

— Mary Wesley

I remember the evacuee children from towns and cities throwing stones at the farm animals. When we explained that if you did…

— Mary Wesley

“I have no patience with people who grow old at sixty... Sixty should be the time to start something new, not put…

— Mary Wesley

We all lie to each other, present some sort of front.

— Mary Wesley

A lot of people stop short. They don't actually die but they say, 'Right I'm old, and I'm going to retire,' and…

— Mary Wesley

I have deliberately left Sylvester and Julia's appearances to the reader's imagination.

— Mary Wesley

Each marriage has to be judged separately, and we never know what's going on in another person's marriage.

— Mary Wesley

Twenty years ago, I was living in a lovely cottage on the edge of Dartmoor but I couldn't afford to run a…

— Mary Wesley

Women's courage is rather different from men's. The fact that women have to bring up children and look after husbands makes them…

— Mary Wesley