Quotes from Gerald Durrell

I think you're being very nasty about her, and, anyway, you're in no position to talk about beauty; it's only skin deep after all, and before you go throwing stones you should look for the beam in your eye,' said Margo triumphantly. Larry looked puzzled. 'Is that a proverb, or a quotation from the Builders' Gazette?' he inquired.

How I envy you your ability to be inarticulate in the face of Fate.

they say that when you get old, as I am, your body slows down. I don't believe it. No, I think that is quite wrong. I have a theory that you do not slow down at all, but that life slows down for you. You understand me? Everything becomes languid, as it were, and you can notice so much more when things are in slow motion. The things you see! The extraordinary things that happen all around you, that you never even suspected before! It is really a delightful adventure, quite delightful!

Eventually the warm wind and the rain of winter seemed to polish the sky, so that when January arrived it shone a clear, tender blue … the same blue as that of the tiny flames that devoured the olive logs in the charcoal pits. The nights were still and cool, with a moon so fragile it barely freckled the sea with silver points. The dawns were pale and translucent until the sun rose, mist-wrapped, like a gigantic silkworm cocoon, and washed the island with a delicate bloom of gold dust.

the bobbin of wool would rise and fall, twisting like a top, her fingers busy unravelling and plucking, and her drooping mouth with its hedge of broken and discoloured teeth wide open as she sang, loudly and harshly, but with great vigour. It was from Agathi that I learned some of the most beautiful and haunting of the peasant songs.

and the olive trunks steamed as the rain was dried off them by the sun

Eventually, having shoved enough down them to keep them more or less alive, I left them in their strawberry basket on the veranda

Ensconced in the attic, she was producing somewhat lopsided and slippery pieces of sculpture out of an acrid-smelling yellow soap and appearing in a flowered smock and an artistic trance at mealtimes.

Mother, scarlet with heat, trotted frantically around the kitchen making scones, cakes, apple turnovers, and brandysnaps, stews, pies, jellies, and trifles.

It was originally intended to be a mildly nostalgic account of the natural history of the island

The Magenpies, obviously suspecting Larry of being a dope smuggler, had fought valiantly with the time of bicarbonate of soda, and had scattered its contents along a line of books, so that they looked like a snow-covered mountain range.

Then I got out of bed to have a look and I found that poor rose, crushed in the middle of them, being harried to death. I got him out and put him by himself and gave him half an aspirin. Aspirin is so good for roses. Drachma pieces for the chrysanthemums, aspirin for roses, brandy for sweet peas, and a squeeze of lemon-juice for the fleshy flowers, like begonias.

IgnoranÈ›a familiei mele în ceea ce priveÈ™te lumea în care tr?iesc a constituit întotdeauna un motiv de îngrijorare pentru mine È™i n-am l?sat niciodat? s?-mi scape vreo ocazie de a le împ?rt??i cunoÈ™tinÈ›e.

Typical of the medical profession,' said Larry bitterly. 'They can't even spot a disease until the patient is twice life size.

fed under the orange and lemon trees

the glitter and wink of the trapped fish inside it.

It is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, which, by often rumination, wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

have you heard about the young Hindu virgin from Kutch, who kept two tame snakes in her crutch, she said when they wriggle, it's a bit of a giggle, but my boyfriends don't like my crutch much. Ha ha ha!' 'Really, captain!' said Mother, outraged, 'I do wish you wouldn't recite poetry in front of Gerry.

Treading water and peering down, we could see below the shining, narrow fronds of green and black weeds growing close and tangled, over which we hung like hawks suspended in air above a strange woodland.

I sighed rapturously. It was a wonderful story, and might well be true. Even it if wasn't true, it was the sort of thing that should happen

Mother spent a lot of her spare time choosing places to be buried in, but they were generally situated in the most remote areas, and one had vision of the funeral cortege dropping exhausted by the wayside long before it had reached the grave.

Perchè? Perchè? Perchè se dormi, quando ti svegli sei cambiato. Sì, i cipressi neri sono pericolosi. Mentre dormi, le loro radici ti crescono nel cervello e te lo rubano, e quando ti svegli sei matto, con la testa vuota come uno zufolo».

Imitai lo stile del Boy's Own Paper, sicchè ogni capitolo finiva nel momento più emozionante, con mamma aggredita da un giaguaro o Larry che si dibatteva tra le spire di un enorme pitone.

The bear, I decided, had got to become mine. The dogs and my other animals would soon get used to it and together we could go waltzing over the hillsides.