Quote

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.)

Barbara Mertz

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Barbara Mertz
Age: 85 †
Born: 1927
Born: September 29
Died: 2013
Died: August 8
Archaeologist
Author
Egyptologist
Novelist
Writer
Canton
Illinois
Elizabeth Peters
Barbara Michaels
Barbara Louise Mertz
Cat
Mumbling
Bed
Retreated
Silence
Monologue
Knew
Monologues
Heard
Presume
Asks
Profane
Never
Owned
Carrying

More quotes by Barbara Mertz

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Cats always made up to the people who hated them the most. Depending on how you chose to look at it, it was a touching manifestation of trust, or a malicious pleasure in human discomfort.
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Getting an idea for a book is not the problem, but you need 300 ideas - an idea a page.
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Spring is always cruel, with its false promise of resurrection.
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You are softening toward the young rascal because he is ill, and because he says he likes cats. It is an engaging quality, Emerson. That depends, said Emerson darkly, on how he likes them.
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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.
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I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle.... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! (Amelia Peabody)
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Now, Mama, Papa, and sir, said Ramses, please withdraw to the farthest corner and crouch down with your backs turned. It is as I feared we will never break through by this method. The walls are eight feet thick. Fortunately I brought along a little nitroglycerin-- Oh, good Gad, shrieked Inspector Cuff.
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I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.
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I would never have supposed that inexperienced girl was capable of such cold-blooded, calculating manipulation!
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I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.
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The opportunity to lecture had restored my good humor.
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Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.
Barbara Mertz
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...Nefret said with a gusty sigh, 'Well, that's done it. We may as well join in, Ramses, family arguments are the favorite form of amusement here and this looks like being a loud one.
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..he continues to cling to the forlorn hope that I will turn into one of those swooning females...and fling myself squeeling at him whenever anything happens. Like all men, he clings to his illusions.
Barbara Mertz
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Dogs can be made to feel guilty about anything, including the sins of their owners. Cats refuse to take the blame for anything - including their own sins.
Barbara Mertz
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stereotypes are awfully misleading. There are typical librarians, but not all librarians are typical.
Barbara Mertz
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I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family. Very boring, Emerson.
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That's maturity-when you realize that you've finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.
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Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point
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It is easier to counterfeit old age than youth.
Barbara Mertz