The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.

Nature can put on a thrilling show. The stage is vast, the lighting is dramatic, the extras are innumerable, and the budget for special effects is absolutely unlimited.

I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.

Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you. You see with utter lucidity all that you are losing.

In art, something comes of nothing. Out of the thin air and the ether, you create a story. And that is intensely satisfying.

If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.

You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better.