In the silence I heard Bastet, who had retreated under the bed, carrying on a mumbling, profane monologue. (If you ask how I knew it was profane, I presume you have never owned a cat.)

When emotion supersedes reason ... gullibility must follow.

No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.

Giving other people advice is one of the most irritating and useless activities known to man.

The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.

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.

Money was the manure of politics.