I do hope you have some money. I’m getting tired of hitting people.

If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson.

Dogs can be made to feel guilty about anything, including the sins of their owners. Cats refuse to take the blame for anything – including their own sins.

I knew the answer, and – of course – so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.

His masculinity was only too apparent.

Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn’t planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I’m not recommending it as a way to write. It’s very sloppy, but it works for me.

I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to – mostly the latter.

The only people who are not in awe of Emerson’s powerful voice and well-nigh superhuman strength are the members of his own family. He is aware of this, and often complains about it; so from time to time I like to put on a little show of being intimidated. ‘Proceed, my dear,’ I said apologetically.

Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point.

The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal – or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be.