Human beings are drawn to cats because they are all we are not — self-contained, elegant in everything they do, relaxed, assured, glad of company, yet still possessing secret lives.

Bears being sent through the mail should never be squashed up to make them fit. It gives them indigestion.

If you've only one breath left, use it to say thank you.

Sisters don't need words. They have perfected a language of snarls and smiles and frowns and winks - expressions of shocked surprise and incredulity and disbelief. Sniffs and snorts and gasps and sighs - that can undermine any tale you're telling.

We have become a society where the artist is regarded as a self-indulgent superfluity, and the person who juggles stocks and shares is an essential part of the economy.

Horses lend us the wings we lack.

An older sister is a friend and defender - a listener, conspirator, a counsellor and a sharer of delights. And sorrows too.