The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Night After Night’ (1932 film)
Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?
In Joseph Weintraub ‘Peel Me a Grape’ (1975) p. 47
I used to be Snow White...but I drifted.
In Joseph Weintraub ‘Peel Me a Grape’ (1975) p. 47
Why don’t you come up sometime, and see me? I’m home every evening.
‘She Done Him Wrong’ (1933 film; often misquoted as ‘Come up and see me sometime’, which became Mae
West’s catch-phrase)
11.53 Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Fairfield) 1892-1983
God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.
‘The Strange Necessity’ (1928) ‘The Tosh Horse’.
Journalism—an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.
‘New York Herald Tribune’ 22 April 1956 sect. 6, p. 2
Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and
considers just how many people know the truth about his or her love affairs.
‘Vogue’ 1 November 1952
He [Michael Arlen] is every other inch a gentleman.
In Victoria Glendinning ‘Rebecca West’ (1987) pt. 3, ch. 5
11.54 Richard Bethell, Lord Westbury 1800-73
Then, sir, you will turn it over once more in what you are pleased to call your mind.
Related by Jowett and denied, not very convincingly, by Westbury. T. A. Nash ‘Life of Lord
Westbury’ (1888) bk. 2, ch. 12
11.55 Edward Noyes Westcott 1846-98
They say a reasonable amount o’ fleas is good fer a dog—keeps him from broodin’ over bein’
a dog, mebbe.
‘David Harum’ ch. 32
11.56 John Fane, Lord Westmorland 1759-1841
Merit, indeed!...We are come to a pretty pass if they talk of merit for a bishopric.
Noted in Lady Salisbury’s diary, 9 December 1835, in C. Oman ‘The Gascoyne Heiress’ (1968) 5
11.57 Sir Charles Wetherell 1770-1846
Then there is my noble and biographical friend who has added a new terror to death.
Referring to Lord Campbell, in Lord St Leonards ‘Misrepresentations in Campbell’s Lives of Lyndhurst and
Brougham’ (1869) p. 3.
11.58 Robert Wever fl.1550
In a harbour grene aslepe whereas I lay,