Things seemed to go back and forth between reality and imagination--except that it was all reality.

That's all it took to solve problems - just sense.

Books make me feel safe. Books make me feel normal.

Do what you can as you can. Trouble, problems, will come no matter what you do , and you must respond as they come.

We don’t like to think of ourselves as prey—it is a lessening thought—but the truth is that in our arrogance and so-called knowledge we forget that we are not unique. We are part of nature as much as other animals, and some animals—sharks, fever-bearing mosquitoes, wolves and bear, to name but a few—perceive us as a food source, a meat supply, and simply did not get the memo about how humans are superior. It can be shocking, humbling, painful, very edifying and sometimes downright fatal to run into such an animal.

I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me. The sea.

He had to keep thinking of them because if he forgot them and did not think of them they might forget about him. And he had to keep hoping.