I had this wild imagination. I was never me. All my childhood photos I'm in fancy dress playing a Russian refuge or Marvelous Mad Madam Mim.

I remember when I was a kid watching my mother jam herself into her girdle - a piece of equipment so rigid it could stand up on its own - and I remember her coming home from fancy parties and racing upstairs to extricate herself from its cruel iron grip.

The advantages found in history seem to be of three kinds as it amuses the fancy as it improves the understanding and as it strengthens virtue.

Fancy the happiness of Pinocchio on finding himself free! Without saying yes or no he fled from the city and set out on the road that was to take him back to the house of the lovely Fairy.

I have a great mind to believe in Christianity for the mere pleasure of fancying I may be damned.

So foolish is the heart of man that he ever puts his hope in the future learning nothing from his past errors and fancying that tomorrow must be better than today.

At this early stage in our evolution now through our infancy and into our childhood and then with luck our growing up what our species needs most of all right now is simply a future.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that in a future existence we shall look upon what we think our present existence as a dream.

Italian food is all about ingredients and it's not fussy and it's not fancy.

Keep it simple in the kitchen. If you use quality ingredients you don't need anything fancy to make food delicious: just a knife a cutting board and some good nonstick cookware and you're set.