“The end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live....”

“It seems as if no man had ever died in America before, for in order to die you must first have lived. These men, in teaching us how to die, have at the same time taught us how to live.”

“Literature can teach us how to live before we live, and how to die before we die. I believe that writing is practice for death, and for every (other) transformation human beings encounter.”

“Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now.Let it teach you Being.Let it teach you integrity — which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real.Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.”

“He was teaching me how to die, just as he'd taught me how to live.”

“Pope John Paul II was always a teacher. He taught us many things: how to pray, how to have patience, how to be loving. And I realized something about his last moments… that he was teaching us all how to die.”