Quotes from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Cats are notoriously picky about who they like. And if a cat doesn’t like its owner it will go and find another one. Cats do that all the time.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Living on the streets of London strips away your dignity, your identity − your everything, really. Worst of all, it strips away people’s opinion of you. They see you are living on the streets and treat you as a non-person. They don’t want anything to do with you. Soon you haven’t got a real friend in the world.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“I tried to sneak in without him seeing me. It was a stupid move. He was a cat, he had more senses in one of his whiskers than I had in my entire body. No sooner had I opened the door to the building than he was there squeezing his way in.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“I don't know why, but people seem to be fascinated to learn how some members of society fall through the cracks. I think it's partly that feeling that... it could happen to anyone. But I think it also makes people feel better about their own lives. It makes them think, 'Well, I may think my life is bad, but it could be worse, I could be that poor sod.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“People don’t want to listen. All they see is someone they think is trying to get a free ride. They don’t understand I’m working, I’m not begging. I was actually trying to make a living. Just because I wasn’t wearing a suit and a tie and carrying a briefcase or a computer, just because I didn’t have a payslip and a P45, it didn’t mean that I was freeloading.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Cat saliva contains a natural deodorant which is why they lick themselves a lot. It’s been proven by zoologists that cats that lick the smell off themselves survive longer and have more successful offspring. It’s also their way of hiding themselves from predators like large snakes, lizards and other larger carnivorous mammals.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Having Bob gave me a chance to interact with people.... Cats are notoriously picky about who they like. Seeing me with my cat softened me in [others] eyes. It humanized me. Especially after I'd been so dehumanized. In some ways it was giving me back my identity. I had been a non-person; I was becoming a person again.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Everybody needs a break, everybody deserves that second chance. Bob and I had taken ours.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“There's a famous quote I read somewhere. It says we are all given second chances every day of our lives. They are there for the taking, it's just that we don't usually take them.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“I’d heard about cats watching TV from a friend whose cat loved Star Trek: The Next Generation. Whenever it heard that familiar music − Dah-Dah Dah Dah Dah-Dah Dah Dah − he’d come running into the room and jump on the sofa. I saw it happen a few times and it was hilarious. No joke. Pretty”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“A few moments later the bus pulled up. It was an old-fashioned red double-decker bus that you could jump on at the back. I went to sit on the bench at the back of the bus and was placing my guitar case in the storage space near where the conductor was standing when, behind me, I saw a sudden flash of ginger fur. Before I knew it, Bob had jumped up and plonked himself on the seat next to where I was sitting.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“I was raised as a churchgoer but I wasn't a practising Christian. I wasn't an agnostic or atheist either. My view is that we should all take a bit from every religion and philosophy. I'm not a Buddhist but I like Buddhist philosophies, in particular. They give you a very good structure that you can build your life around. For instance, I definitely believe in karma, the idea that what goes around, comes around. I wondered whether Bob was my reward for having done something good, somewhere in my troubled life. - Chapter 21”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“don’t know why, but people seem to be fascinated to learn how some members of society fall through the cracks. I think it’s partly that feeling that ‘there for the grace of God go I’, that it could happen to anyone. But I think it also makes people feel better about their own lives. It makes them think, ‘Well, I may think my life is bad, but it could be worse, I could be that poor sod.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Если рядом кошка, все становится особенным...даже одиночество.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

“Having Bob there gave me a chance to interact with people. They would ask about Bob and I would get a chance to explain my situation at the same time. They would ask where he came from and I’d then be able to explain how we got together and how we were making money to pay our rent, food, electricity and gas bills. People would give me more of a fair hearing. Psychologically, people also began to see me in a different light. Cats are notoriously picky about who they like. And if a cat doesn’t like its owner it will go and find another one. Cats do that all the time. They go and live with somebody else. Seeing me with my cat softened me in their eyes. It humanised me. Especially after I’d been so dehumanised. In some ways it was giving me back my identity. I had been a non-person; I was becoming a person again.”
― James Bowen, quote from A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

Video

About the author

Popular quotes

“I cannot see anything admirable in stupidity, injustice and sheer incompetence in high places, and there is too much of all three in the present administration.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions

“Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.”
― William Blake, quote from Songs of Innocence and of Experience

“If I never had another thing, Id have everything.”
― James Patterson, quote from Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

“The way you move is incredible.” Ren drew me back to press against him. His fingers slid down to the curve of my hips, rocking our bodies in rhythm with the heavy bass. The sensation of being molded against the hard narrow line of his hips threatened to overwhelm me. We were hidden in the mass of people, right? The Keepers couldn’t see?
I tried to steady my breath as Ren kept us locked together in the excruciatingly slow pulse of the music. I closed my eyes and leaned back into his body; his fingers kneaded my hips, caressed my stomach. God, it felt good.
My lips parted and the misty veil slipped between them, playing along my tongue. The taste of flower buds about to burst into bloom filled my mouth. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to melt into Ren. The surge of desire terrified me. I had no idea if the compulsion to draw him more tightly around my body emerged from my own heart or from the succubi’s spellcraft. This couldn’t happen!
I started to panic when he bent his head, pressing his lips against my neck. My eyes fluttered and I struggled to focus despite the suffocating heat that pressed down all around me. His sharpened canines traced my skin, scratching but not breaking the surface. My body quaked and I pivoted in his arms, pushing against his chest, making space between us.
“I’m a fighter, not a lover,” I gasped.
“You can’t be both?” His smile made my knees buckle.”
― Andrea Cremer, quote from Nightshade

“I don't mind [being ugly], do you?”
― George Eliot, quote from Silas Marner

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.