L. P. Hartley

The Go-Between (1953)

• The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
  • First sentence

• "But men still shoot each other, don't they?" I asked hopefully.

"They shot me," he answered, with what I took to be a smile.

"Yes, but that was in a war. Do they still shoot each other over ladies?" I imagined a carpet of prostrate women, over whom shots rang out.

• "I might go for a walk." Even to me this sounded a pedestrian thing to do.