We're as ephemeral as raindrops. We all fall, and we all land somewhere.

We live in an enlightened age, however, an age that has learned to see and to value other living things as they are, not as we wish them to be. And the long and creditable history of science has taught us, if nothing else, to look carefully before we judge to judge, if we must, based on what we see, not what we would prefer to believe.

Evolution can't be predicted, Julian used to tell me; it's a scattershot business; it fires, but it doesn't aim.

Understanding is better than ignorance. Ignorance, unlike life, unlike narrative, is static. Understanding implies a forward motion, thus the possibility of change.

I understand so very little. But I am not afraid to look: I am a good observer at last. My eyes are open, and I am not afraid.

This would have been less annoying had it been untrue.

Children wear their natures like brightly-colored clothes; that's why they lie so transparently. Adulthood is the art of deceit.