“Fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level.”

“No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.”

“I've got death inside me. It's just a question of whether or not I can outlive it.”

“The power of the dead is that we think they see us all the time. The dead have a presence. Is there a level of energy composed solely of the dead? They are also in the ground, of course, asleep and...”

“When I read obituaries I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think. Nine more years. Two years and I'm dead. The power of numb...”

“Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?'What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing”

“California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.”

“Life is a nightmare that leaves its mark upon you in order to prove that it is, in fact, real.”

“The family is the cradle of the world's misinformation.”

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

“News told, rumors heard, truth implied, facts buried.”

“She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.”

“work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”