“Closer and closer they came. The sight was a glorious one: two vessels racing towards each other as the sun lifted above the rim of the world.”

“...when all the openings were closed, then the worlds would all be restored to their proper relations with one another, Lyra’s Oxford and Will’s would lie over each other again, like transparent images on two sheets of film being moved closer and closer until they merged–although they would never truly touch.”

“We’re two sides of an infinitesimally thin coin. Slice the coin thinner and thinner, and we get closer and closer to each other. We can slice it arbitrarily thin, let the limit of the thickness approach zero. Slice it until there’s no one or nothing in between, until we meet at zero.”

“Sex and religion are closer to each other that either might prefer.”

“Already he had achieved a tremendous success, as the great wings of an Elder had lifted him above the impossible, and were carrying him ever closer to the possible.”

“Laughter between two is sometimes a closer act of love than any other.”