“But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.”
“Sometimes when the sun is shining through the clouds, I like to the park and look up at the sky, after a while I imagine that I am flying, and sometimes when I try hard I am able to fly through some of the hoops in the clouds. When I manage to successfully do this, I like to create a trophy cabinet in my mind, and each time I award my self a small keepsake, a little moment of achievement for my self.”
“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.”
“The leaf that spreads in the light is the only holiness there is. I haven't found holiness in the faiths of mortals, or in their music, not in their dreams: it's out in the open field, with the green rows looking at the sky. I don't know what it is, this holiness: but it's there, and it looks at the sky. Probably though this is some conditioning the Company installed to ensure I'd be a good botanist. Well, I grew up into a good one. Damned good.”
“But this time I'm not to blame; I want you to believe that. I simply slipped into those violets. No, I want to be really truthful. I am a little to blame. The sky, you know, was gold, and the ground all blue, and for a moment he looked like some one in a book.”