“Later: Midnight. Just woke up with this thought; Maybe Simons right. Maybe there is a spirit that ejects from the body. Even stars, when they die eject hydrogen and helium from their bodies, which fly out in space into infinity.”

“Later: Woke up at 3:00 am and crept into Davids room. I talked to David about the ghost who came to live in his body, the sad soul who was taken back into the earth.David’s trophies are dusty again.”

“The larger a star the shorter its life, but all the more fascinating its death. As it collapses within it’s body, the infalling material can be no longer be compressed; the star is blown to pieces; its shattered mass realeases out ward at the speed of light.”

“The atoms of the earth are formed inside of stars. Nothing really dies, everything is transformed.”

“Liberty clutched him tightly. 'You played a part in my destiny. And maybe I played a part in yours.' That was how things worked, she was beginning to realize. Destiny wasn't something you accomplished by yourself.”

“the tail of a comet can extend millionsof miles into space, always in the opposite direction of the sun, blown by the solar breeze. A comets tail is the closet thing to nothing that anything can be. I love that. The closest thing to nothing.”

“What exists beneath the sea?I’d always pictured it in colors of emerald and aquamarine, where black velvet fish with sequined eyes swim among plankton.But, when my eyes adjust, I see gray stones, lost anchors, wet wood, buttons, hooks, and eyes, the salem witches who wouldn’t float, stars and stripes, missing vessels, windup toys, the souls of Romeo and Juliet, peaches, cream, pistons, screams, cages of ribs and birds, tunnels, nutcracker soldiers, satin bows, drugstore signs, Pandora box ripped open at its hinges.”