God creates us free, free to be selfish, but He adds a mechanism that will penetrate our selfishness and wake us up to the presence of others in this world, and that mechanism is called suffering.

There is this notion that the lives of the comfortable-off middle class don't merit being treated seriously and with compassion.

The English seem to think drinking wine is like committing adultery, something you do rarely and abroad.

We read to know that we are not alone.

If you die, I'll die.' 'But is you live, I'll live.' - Bowman and Kestrel, Firesong

All the fear in the world, and the violence that comes from the fear, and the hatred that comes from the violence, and the lonliness that comes from the hatred. All the unhappiness, all the cruelty, it gathers like clouds in the air, and grows dark and cold and heavy, and falls like grey snow in thick layers over the land. Then the world is muffled and numb, and no one can hear each other or feel each other. Think how sad and lonely that must be.

Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn fast.