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“Hear me, Niah. Hear me, Mother. This flesh your feast. This blood your wine. This gift, this life, this end, our offering to you. Hold him close.”

“Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.”

“Codziennie odkładamy na następny dzień szczerość wobec samych siebie, zamiast w sobie znaleźć prawdę o nas.”

“Możesz wierzyć w duchy i życie po śmierci, a nawet w piekło i niebo, ale jesli idzie o ten świat, nie bądź idiotą. Możesz mi mówić, że wiara pomaga ci przetrwać dzień, ale kiedy przechodzisz przez ulicę, to patrzysz uważnie w obie strony.”

“Nie umiem prowadzić zdawkowej rozmowy. Myślisz, że rozmawiacie na jakiś temat, i albo tak jest, co jest nieslychaie nudne, albo tak nie jest, bo chodzi wyłącznie o podtekst, do którego potrzebujesz dekodera.”

“Problem polega na tym, że jeśli nie mogę ci ufać, to nie mogę zaufać twojemu zapewnieniu, że mogę ci ufać.”

“To anarchista. Dla niego liczy się jedynie, aby każdy miał prawo zgarnąć dla siebie wszystko, co tylko zechce i kiedy zechce.”

“Z pewnością przeczy to wszystkiemu, czego się nauczyliście, ale dobro i zło istnieją. Sam fakt, że nie znacie odpowiedzi, a może nawet, że nigdy nie będziecie jej znali, nie czyni z waszych odpowiedzi prawdy, ani nawet półprawdy. W istocie wszystko jest prostsze. Jesteście w oczywistym błędzie.”

“‘Wszyscy chcą czuć się wyjątkowi, czy są gotowi się do tego przyznać, czy nie. A w życiu chodzi o kochanie bez ograniczeń oraz pozwolenie, żeby ktoś kochał nas w zamian.’”

“ ‘Nie przywykłam do odczuwania niejasnego pociągu do mężczyzn, a już z pewnością do tego, co czuję przy nim. To zaskakujące, a także niepokojące, dlatego staram się otrząsnąć, zmierzając pod prysznic.’”

“- Romanse powiadasz? Jestem zaskoczony, że podobają ci się takie głupoty.
- Romanse to nie głupoty. Dają ludziom radość i nadzieję w formie pięknej opowieści. Cóż może być lepszego?”

“I was the paleontologist who'd developed a fear of bones. I was the zoologist who could barely admit he was an animal. I was the evolutionary biologist who found it hard to accept that his time on earth, too, was limited.”

“"Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words." A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”

“(...) I share almost ninety-nine per cent of my genes with a chimpanzee - and our longevity is virtually the same - but I don't think you have an inkling of how much more I comprehend, and yet I know I must tear myself away from it. For example, I have a good grasp of just how infinitely great outer space is and how it's divided into galaxies and clusters of galaxies, spirals and lone stars, and that there are healthy stars and febrile red giants, white dwarfs and neutron stars, planets ans asteroids. I know everything about the sun and moon, about the evolution of life on earth, about the Pharaohs and the Chinese dynasties, the countries of the world and their peoples as presently constituted, not to mention all the studying I've done on plants and animals, canals and lakes, rivers and mountain passes. Without even a pause for thought I can tell you the names of several hundred cities, I can tell you the names of nearly all the countries in the world, and I know the approximate populations of every one. I have a knowledge of the historical background of the different cultures, their religion and mythology, and to a certain extent also the history of their languages, in particular etymological relationships, especially within the Indo-European family of languages, but I can certainly reel off a goodly number of expressions from the Semitic language too, and the same from Chinese and Japanese, not to mention all the topographical and personal names I know. In addition, I'm acquainted with several hundred individuals personally, and just from my own small country I could, at the drop of a hat, supply you with several thousand names of loving fellow countrymen whom I know something about - fairly extensive biographical knowledge in some cases. And I needn't confine myself to Norwegians, we're living more and more in a global village, and soon the village square will cover the entire galaxy. On another level, there are all the people I'm genuinely fond of, although it isn't just people one gets attached to, but places as well: just think of the all the places I know like the back of my hand, and where I can tell if someone's gone chopped down a bush or moved a stone. Then there are books, especially all those that have taught me so much about the biosphere and outer space, but also literary works, and through them all the imaginary people whose lives I've come to know and who, at times, have meant a great deal to me. And then I couldn't live without music, and I'm very eclectic, everything from folk music and Renaissance music to Schonberg and Penderecki, but I have to admit, and this has a bearing on the very perspective we're trying to gain, I have to admit to having a particular penchant for romantic music, and this, don't forget, can also be found amongst the works of Bach and Gluck, not to mention Albinoni. But romantic music has existed in every age, and even Plato warned against it because he believed that melancholy could actually weaken the state, and it's patently clear when you get to Puccini and Mahler that music has become a direct expression of what I'm trying to get you to comprehend, that life is too short and that the way human beings are fashioned means they must take leave of far too much. If you've heard Mahler's Abschied from Das Lied von the Erde you'll know what I mean. Hopefully you'll have understood that it's the farewell itself I'm referring to, the actual leave- taking, and that this takes place in the self-same organ where everything I'm saying goodbye to is stored.”