..he continues to cling to the forlorn hope that I will turn into one of those swooning females...and fling myself squeeling at him whenever anything happens. Like all men, he clings to his illusions.

But the dust! And the clutter! My housewifely and scholarly instincts were equally offended.

Cats always pick the laps of the people who don't like them.

That's maturity-when you realize that you've finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family." "Very boring, Emerson.

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.

The trouble with unknown enemies is that they are so difficult to identify.