“We have been raised to a height that is unattainable and unimaginable for a natural man.”

“Re: Central ParkBut the height proved the awesome truth that the park was made by man: nature re-created where it had been killed.”

“Humans, I finally decided after a few more minutes of watching him, are paradoxically capable of both unattainable depths of kindness and unimaginable depths of cruelty, sometimes within the same body...”

“Every man that ever lived craved perfect happiness, the detective poignantly reflected. But how can we have it when we know we’re going to die? Each joy was clouded by the knowledge it would end. And so nature had implanted in us a desire for something unattainable? No. It couldn’t be. It makes no sense. Every other striving implanted by nature had a corresponding object that wasn’t a phantom. Why this exception? the detective reasoned. It was nature making hunger when there wasn’t any food. We continue. We go on. Thus death proved life.”

“We were raised to believe in books, music, and nature.”

“We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.”