“Nothing can be compared to the new life that the discovery of another country provides for a thoughtful person. Although I am still the same I believe to have changed to the bones.”

“I am a religious person, although I am not a believer.”

“I do not believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.”

“But forget all that--it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun!”

“But I believe the words entered me and changed me and still work in me. The words eat me and sustain me. And when I'm dead and in a box in the dark dark ground, and all my various souls have died and I am nothing but insensible bones, something in the marrow will still feel yearning, desire persisting beyond flesh.”

“I know I am planning to visit a "land" that is not entirely foreign, only foreign to me. As an adventurer, I am on a journey that I believe will last me my whole life. A new relationship, discovery, or awareness excites me.”