“But, who is Death? A figure that harrows and wastes wherever and however it pleases. This is also a possible description of the Countess Bathory. Never did anyone wish so hard not to grow old; I mean, to die. That is why, perhaps, she acted and played the role of Death. Because, how can Death possibly die?”

“Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.”

“To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away.”

“Death cuts off possibilities. Even if they were possibilities you never meant to act on, it feels differentwhen they’re gone.”

“How many different deaths I can die?”

“Why would you ever choose to die?’‘Because a life with no end loses meaning. Death defines life.One day, I hope to find a good reason to die.”