I knew the facts of death before I knew the facts of life. There never was a time when I didn't see the skull beneath the skin.

Of all the things that human beings did together, the sexual act was the one with the most various of reasons.

Daniel supposed he had a secret life. Most people did; it was hardly possible to live without one.

The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last.

Metaphysical speculation is about as pointless as a discussion on the meaning of one's lungs. They're for breathing.

Of the four billion life forms which have existed on this planet, three billion, nine hundred and sixty million are now extinct. We don't know why. Some by wanton extinction, some through natural catastrophe, some destroyed by meteorites and asteroids. In the light of these mass extinctions it really does seem unreasonable to suppose that Homo sapiens should be exempt. Our species will have been one of the shortest-lived of all, a mere blink, you may say, in the eye of time.

The greatest mystery of all is the human heart.