Birth and death - what could be more monstrous than that? We like to deceive ourselves and call it wondrous and beautiful and majestic, but it's freakish, let's face it.

There didn't seem to her any harm in it, and the make-believe was so comforting.

If time were a bolt of cloth,” said Om, “I would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily.

Walk, first, through the fire, then philosophize.

Birth and death - what could be more monstrous than that? We like to deceive ourselves and call it wondrous and beautiful and majestic, but it's freakish, let's face it.

Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.

Time had changed the magical to mundane