C. Day Lewis Quotes

“You weren’t allowed to throw them- that would have been too easy; you had to slap them on to the tank by hand.”

“Nick’s always putting his foot in it. He’s not been awfully bright since the bomb fell. It killed his parents, and he was dug out of the ruins himself. So can you wonder? Still, we liked him all right. After all, it took guts to come and play on the very spot where it had happened.”

“Muswell, take your rule and measure the window... Try, if possible, not to sever the arteries of your wrists on the jagged edges. There might be awkward questions in Parliament if a boy bled to death in my classroom...”

“He was a narrow, wriggling sort of chap, from top to bottom, like a dressed-up eel. Or a snake.”

“Begin at the beginning, go to the end, and there stop- that’s what Rickie, our English master, told me when it was settled I should write the story. It sounds simple enough. But where was the beginning? Haven’t you ever wondered about where things start?”

“I’ll give you a week to pay in. If you haven’t got the money, your par- your guardians will have to stop it out of your pocket money.”

“Jump right into the deep end of the story, don’t hang about on the edge.′

″‘You’ll have to lend Yates the money, sir,’ said Charlie Muswell. ‘He’s broke.’ ‘Not as broke as the window,’ said Mr. Robertson.”