Fanatics do not have faith - they have belief. With faith you let go. You trust. Whereas with belief you cling.

It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.

We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?

Afterwards, when it's all over, you meet God. What do you say to God?

Misery loves company, and madness calls it forth.

In a healthy individual, a broken bone that has healed properly is strongest where it was once broken. You have not lost any life, Henry told himself. You will still get your fair share of years. Yet the quality of his life changed. Once you've been struck by violence, you acquire companions that never leave you entirely: Suspicion, Fear, Anxiety, Despair, Joylessness. The natural smile is taken from you and the natural pleasures you once enjoyed lose their appeal.

The planet is populated by human beings, of which there are only two sexes, and the role of the writer is to explore otherness, other realities. So the idea of a man exploring what it's like to be a woman doesn't strike me as being that wild or crazy an idea.