A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.

Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable. He had never found happiness dull. It always seemed more exciting than any other thing and capable of as great intensity as sorrow to those people who were capable of having it.

This was a big storm and he might as well enjoy it. It was ruining everything, but you might as well enjoy it

What difference does it make if you live in a picturesque little outhouse surrounded by 300 feeble minded goats and your faithful dog? The question is: Can you write?

It's harder to write in the third person but the advantage is you move around better.

Intelligence is so damn rare and the people who have it often have such a bad time with it that they get bitter or propagandistic and then it's not much use.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?