In the end--when all else is dust--loyalty to those we love is all we can carry with us to the grave. Faith--true faith--was trusting in that love.

You treat violence as an aberration ... when in truth it is the norm. It is the very essence of the human condition.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed

If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include the truth of contact or be forever hollow.

The whole planet reeks of mysticism without revelation.

This is every writer's nightmare - the sudden breakdown of meaning in the language that sustains and supports us.

Want to talk about Shakespeare's sonnets?" asked Orphu of Io. Are you shitting me?" The moravecs loved the ancient human colloquial phrases, the more scatological the better. Yes," said Orphu. "I am most definitely shitting you, my friend.