He's a shy man. Life has taught him not to show off what is most precious to him.

What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell.

My ears were full. Nothing more, not one more sound, could push into them and be registered.

When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.

Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness--how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view of things? This peephole is all I've got!

When the course of experience made me see that there is no saviour and no special grace, no remission beyond the human, that pain is to be endured and fades, if it fades, only with time, then God became nothing to me but a dyslexic dog, with neither bark nor bite.

Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey.