Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive.

It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither.

There will be days when the stuff is not flowing freely. What you do then is MAKE IT UP!

I'm just trying to wake up - I'm so afraid of sleeping all my life and then dying - I want to wake up first. I wouldn't care if it was just for an hour, as long as I was properly alive and awake.

And then what?" said her daemon sleepily. "Build what?" "The Republic of Heaven," said Lyra.

Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.

The Lord of the Rings' is fundamentally an infantile work. Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He's interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.