Love This Quote!

 

“All of you out there who believe in telepathy, raise your hand. All right.
Now, everyone who believes in telekinesis: raise my hand.” —Dennis Owens

Quote #73 – Anonymous

“Every time you make a typo, the errorists win!”

     –Unknown Author

The Literary Cat #4

My Literary Cat

“General P. G. T. Beauregard, The Sasquatch”

Alias “Beau”

“I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.” 

–Neil Gaiman

Beau was without a doubt, my favorite cat of all time, in a long list of much loved kitties.  He was huge and impressive–a real specimen! And he was a polydactyl, meaning he had extra toes, and not just on his front feet, like most poly’s. His back feet were the size of snowshoes! Plus, he used his feet like hands, and even picked up his food from his bowl to eat, instead of putting his face down in the dish. I was convinced I could teach him to write or draw if I could only get him interested in it. But like most cats, he knew exactly who he was, and didn’t need lessons of any sort from me.

Sadly, we lost Beau a few years ago from a brain tumor at a mere twelve years of age. He should have had a lot more time with us, but I’m grateful for the years we did have. Watching this 22-pound big boy go about his daily routine was a great pleasure, and I miss him to this day. He is buried in our garden, under a blue gazing ball, and I think of him every time I water that flower bed.

The Literary Cat #3

My Literary Cat

‘Abby The Tabby’

“If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then a cat is the diagram and pattern of subtle air.”

     –Doris Lessing, On Cats

NOTE: I’m not sure Fat Abby is air given shape–unless you are talking hot air balloons. She is a beautifully marked and very sweet brown and white patched tabby, without a brain in her pretty head, I’m afraid.  She only knows one trick: how to find the food bowl. But that one, she has mastered completely. Consequently, she resembles a long-haired basketball when waddling around the house, and nothing I do seems to fix the problem. She’s made it nearly 13 years, though, so I have hopes her excess weight will not cut her life expectancy down by much. And she can still move fast when she wants to.  I recently saw her go from the floor to the top of the porch screen in mere seconds, while in pursuit of a lizard who had foolishly come inside a house with four cats and two dogs, all of which would gladly make a snack of him.

 

The Literary Cat #2

My Literary Cat

‘Sgt. Karrin Murphy, alias Murph’

“In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.“

 –Terry Pratchett

NOTE: Murph would be the most unlikely cat ever to be worshipped by anyone, anywhere. After rescuing her and her brother, Harry,  almost two years ago, as kittens merely eight weeks old,  Harry settled into our household and totally totally embraced his role as ruler of the roost. On the other hand, Murphy still dives under the nearest bed or couch when any human approaches her. You’d think she’d have figured out by now that we are mostly harmless and provide all the food and creature comforts she could ask for, as devoted slaves will do, but nooooo. We call her the Skittery Kittery.

The Literary Cat #1

My Literary Cat

‘Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden’

“I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.”

–Rudyard Kipling, The Cat Who Walked By Himself

NOTE: Harry thinks the bookshelves over my desk are the perfect place to walk–and to lie down–by himself. Perfect for surveying his Kingdom.  And for taking afternoon naps, far away from the riffraff, namely the dachshunds, below.

Quote #69 – Rita Rudner

“Before I met my husband, I’d never fallen in love.
I’d stepped in it a few times…”

–Rita Rudner

NOTE:  Just one more way of looking at love for you…..

Quote #66 – Dorothy Parker

“This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.”
     ― Dorothy Parker

NOTE: When quoting Dorothy Parker, one finds oneself spoiled for choice.  Picking only one is hard to do! The only answer is to quote her more often.

Quote #64 – John Gardner

“In nearly all good fiction, the basic – all but inescapable – plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition, perhaps including his own doubts, and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.”
     –John Gardner

Quote #63 – Henry David Thoreau

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”

     –Henry David Thoreau

(Maybe this will be of comfort to those of you whose days are currently filled with an excess of those cold, white flakes?)

Quote #62 – Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Click to See Quote & Photo Full Sized)

“The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”

     –Ralph Waldo Emerson

How beautiful is this quote?  And how perfect is the message that we should live in the moment, never comparing ourselves to anyone else, but accepting that we are each beautiful in our own unique way?  This is a card made for me by my very good friend and fellow gardener and rose lover, Nicki.  The photo is from her own garden, and is of an old-world rose called Souvenir de la Malmaison, which we both grow and love for its beauty and fragrance.  Thank you, Nicki, for taking the time to make this for me, and for tucking it into my Christmas “basket.”  It is keeping me company on my desk even as I type, framed to protect it for many years.  I have resolved to read the message often, and strive to remember these words every day!

Quotes #60 and #61 – Erma Bombeck

“When humor goes, there goes civilization.”

“If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.”

–Erma Bombeck

 

(These two quotes pretty much sum up my general philosophy of life. Remember to laugh today!)

Quote #59 – Dave Barry

“Don’t you wish you had a job like mine? All you have to do is think up a certain number of words! Plus, you can repeat words! And they don’t even have to be true!”

     –Dave Barry on Journalism/Writing

 

(Note: It explains SO much.)

Christmas Quote #6 – Grace Noll Crowell

“Whatever else be lost among the years,

Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;

Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,

Let us hold close one day,remembering Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men.

Let us get back our childlike faith again.

     – Grace Noll Crowell

Christmas Quote #4 – Bess Streeter Aldrich

“Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart…filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.”

–Bess Streeter Aldrich, Song of Years

Christmas Quote #3 – Charles Dickens

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

        ~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English author. From ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Christmas Quote #2 – Dr. Seuss

“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more….”
     –Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

 

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and

Quote #58 – Cyril Connolly

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
    

     –Cyril Connolly

Quote #57 – E. L. Doctorow

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

     –E. L. Doctorow

Quote #56 – Ursula LeGuin

“The story is not in the plot but in the telling.“
     –Ursula K. LeGuin

(Truer words were never spoken!)

Quote #55 – Alfred Hitchcock

“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.“
     –Alfred Hitchcock

Quote #54 – Mark Twain

“The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.”
     –Mark Twain

(Certainly BAD fiction makes me feel just that way.)

Quote #53 – Jim Butcher

“I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching–they are your family.”

–Jim Butcher, Proven Guilty

Passages #2 – Odd Thomas

Passage from Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

A more endearing character than Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas would be hard to find.  Just a glimpse at the opening paragraph of the first book in this series, Odd Thomas, should make you want to know more about him,