It is said that whomsoever the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. In fact, whomsoever the gods wish to destroy, they first hand the equivalent of a stick with a fizzing fuse and Acme Dynamite Company written on the side. It's more interesting, and doesn't take so long.

My character - and for that matter my worst habits - could only be described by someone else. You can't open a box with the crowbar inside it.

Ultimately, there is the freedom to take the consequences.

Some people believe that when you die, you cross the River of Death and have to pay the ferryman. People don’t seem to worry about that these days. Perhaps there’s a bridge now.

He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe. Which was going to be hard, because there wasn't one.

No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk.

Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.