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 man. They just...wonder.

— Dodie Smith

A mist is rolling over the fields. Why is a summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?

— Dodie Smith

And no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate.

— Dodie Smith

And what I thought most about was luxury. I had never realized before that it is more than just having things; it makes the very air feel different. And I felt different, breathing the air: relaxed, lazy, still sad but with the edge taken off the sadness. Perhaps the effect wears off in time, or perhaps you don't notice it if you are born to it, but it does seem to me that the climate of richness must always be a little dulling to the senses. Perhaps it takes the edge off joy as well as off sorrow.

— Dodie Smith

And who says you always have to understand things? You can like them without understanding them -- like 'em better sometimes.

— Dodie Smith

A thousand pounds for clothes--when on thinks how long poor people could live on it! When one thinks how long we could live on it, for that matter!

— Dodie Smith

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 Nether field Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.

— Dodie Smith

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.

— Dodie Smith

Cruel blows of fate call for extreme kindness in the family circle.

— Dodie Smith

Did you think of anything when Miss Marcy said McCartney Hall was being re-opened? I thought of the beginning of Pride and Prejudice – where Mrs. Bennet says 'Nether field Park is let a last.' And then Mr. Bennet goes over to call on the rich new owner.

— Dodie Smith