“Everybody must have a story. For those who don't, we need to invent one.”

“Words and form! We have a totally clear view of the world when we're fourteen years old, maybe sooner. But then we need another fifty years in order to create a language that can express those impressions. And in the mean time, of course, they've faded away.”

“The living must look after one another, he thought. The worst possible outcome is to die without having lived.”

“The ritual works. The forms overcome doubts. We have learned over the centuries to weave meaning around emptiness and pain. A meaning and a pattern. We have been practising that for a very long time.”

“You will find out who you are when the difficult moment comes.”

“There are reasons for everything we do.”

“We are closer to the end of the world than to that minute that has just passed by, because that is lost forever.”