Probably not needing to be published would give me more time to think about a book.

The past is a cupboard full of light and all you have to do is find the key that opens the door.

Why do cats sleep so much? Perhaps they've been trusted with some major cosmic task, an essential law of physics - such as: if there are less than five million cats sleeping at any one time the world will stop spinning.

What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

He was born a politician. No, Ursula thought, he was born a baby, like everyone else. And this is what he has chosen to become.

She doesn't believe in dogs," Bridget said. "Dogs are hardly an article of faith," Sylvie said.

(although anyone with half a brain must surely be mired in existential gloom all the time)