“It seems reckless, even perverse, to spend so much time and effort nurturing such a deadly thing...Ernie and Pooka seek to understand death and to master their fear of it by domesticating it in the form of the brugmansia.”

“Fear of death is form of stasis horrors. The dead weight of time.”

“You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that be must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.”

“You take anything you fear and cannot understand and make it an object of hate. So much easier to hate and destroy than to seek to understand.”

“The things you spend so much time on--all this work you do--might not seem as important. You might have to make room for some more spiritual things.”

“Any man with money to make the purchase may become a dog's owner. But no man --spend he ever so much coin and food and tact in the effort-- may become a dog's Master without consent of the dog. Do you get the difference? And he whom a dog once unreservedly accepts as Master is forever that dog's God.”