“You are a side effect," Van Houten continued, "of an evolutionary process that cares little for individual lives. You are a failed experiment in mutation.”

“Throughout the book, she refers to herself as "the side effect," which is just totally correct. Cancer kids are essentially side effects of the relentless mutation that made the diversity of life on earth possible.”

“Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change... If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances — and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse — then you don't have life after death; you just have death.”

“I want to leave a mark.But Van Houten: The marks humans leave are too often scars.”

“His memory is compromised,' Lidewij said. 'If only my memory would compromise,' Van Houten responded.”

“Enlightenment (or not) is an evolutionary process”