Barbara Pym Quotes

So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts.

In Sweden everybody has this perfect surface. Everyone's very polite and controls their feelings.

It's important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

I'm very English, and we don't talk about emotions publicly.

The truth is I was nicely brought up and taught not to show my rage even though it was building up inside.

I don't go through life verbalizing what I feel.

I don't express a lot of things that I feel; I kind of register things.

The Queen is not supposed to have a favourite or prefer anything. From a very young age, they are taught that if you fall down, you don't make a face; you keep your emotions under control, and you don't let other people know what you're feeling. That's a very different kind of way of thinking from how I was brought up.

When I see someone for the first time in a while, and they ask, 'How have you been?' or 'What have you been up to?', it's politeness but a bit of a conversation stopper.

I'm not an ace at small talk.

German Jews don't show their emotions in public.

I tried to continue, but somehow my throat made up its mind to swallow – though I can’t think what I was swallowing, unless it was a little knot of emotion I pushed back down because there was no room in my face for any more.

Whatever my intentions, whatever the truth of my claim, I had no business giving a lecture to a total stranger.

I don't think I'd have any friends if I didn't obscure at least 99% of my thoughts.

The ignorant are afraid to betray surprise or admiration...they think it ill manners.

Language is a tool for concealing the truth. If we could read each other's minds, this would be a horror show.

I had to feign interest in all this nonsense until I could ask when I could come over and sit on his face. I didn't say that out loud, of course. I never say the things I really want to. If I did, I'd have no friends.

It's really best not to tell people when you feel bad. Growing up is about keeping secrets, and pretending everything is fine.

I hate polite conversation. I hate it when people stand around and go, "Hi, how are you?" I hate words that don't have any reason or meaning. Also I hate it when people smoke in elevators and closed in places. It's just so rude.

Now I am depressed myself,' I said. 'That's why I never think about these things. I never think and yet when I begin to talk I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking.

She let out a laugh, and then she put her hand over her mouth, like she was angry at herself for forgetting her sadness.

The domination of one's spirit and mind is not a pretty thing, but I think it happens.

There's nothing like desire to prevent the things one says from having any resemblance to the things in one's mind.

I probably not as likely to say what's on my mind, and I think most people aren't. It's not something I would want to always be doing. So that's why I'm not a politician.