He was sure that he was not the cause of the abrupt silence. His passage through the canyon had not previously disturbed either birds or cicadas. Something was out there. An intruder of which the ordinary forest creatures clearly did not approve. He took a deep breath and held it again, straining to hear the slightest movement in the woods. This time he detected the rustle of brush, a snapping twig, the soft crunch of dry leaves-and the unnervingly peculiar, heavy, ragged breathing of something big.

I'm alive but I have no life. I'm alive but also dead. I'm dead and alive.

I survive by finding the sweet spot between reason and unreason, between the rational and irrational.

I was looking forward to having a halo. It would make such a convenient reading lamp.

I can do what I need to do. I can get where I want to go, no matter how hard it is.

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.

Your mind always does worse things than people can show in a movie.