"Complete people gaze into the blue sky above, plunge into the center of the earth below, and run freely in the eight directions without even a change of mood."

"Blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond anything imagined by ancestors who tilled the unpredictable soil of medieval Europe, modern populations have nonetheless shown a remarkable capacity to feel that neither who they are nor what they have is quite enough."

"Society may no longer define marriage in the only way marriage has ever been defined in the annals of recorded history. Many societies allowed polygamy, many allowed child marriages, some allowed marriage within families; but none, in thousands of years, defined marriage as the union of people of the same sex."

"The popular view that a child forgets easily is not an accurate one. Many people go right through life in the grip of an idea which has been impressed on them in very tender years."

"I know that I'm going to die and that you're going to die. I can't do anything about that. But I can explore it through a metaphor and make a kind of funny, dark story about it, and in doing so, really exhaust and research as many aspects of it as I can imagine. And in a way, that does give me some closure."

"The fly that should be dead and the dog that should be dead in the house that should be dead, and the bride, who would be dead soon.It watched approvingly, appreciating the complexities—and fragilities—of life."

"And there you stand-Far away from the distant reality,Far away in my breathing dream,Far away in the traces of my livid eyes,Far away in my hostile fantasy."

"I looked up, it was the first drop of rain.Tearing through the clouds, screaming as it did.For all this effort, it had to head towards the drain,So I looked up and caught it in my eye instead."