“Cage an eagle and it will bite at the wires, be they ofiron or of gold.”

“You can't cage an eagle for long without destroying it.”

“The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.”

“They rattled my cage to see if I'd bite. When they released me, they'd see that the answer was yes.”

“Hippogriff, n. An animal (now extinct) which was half horse and half griffin. The griffin was itself a compound creature, half lion and half eagle. The hippogriff was actually, therefore, only one-quarter eagle, which is two dollars and fifty cents in gold. The study of zoology is full of surprises.”

“Do you have a pet bird?' I asked, looking around the room.'Oh, heavens, no. I'd never cage a bird. I can't imagine a worse fate, can you? I bought this cage at a market in Peru several years ago. I hung it here and wired the door open to remind myself how delicious freedom is -- financial and otherwise.”