“Embrace yourself. Be not afraid.”

“... the only common denominator in all of your failed relationships is you.”

“If you see an antimatter version of yourself running towards you, think twice before embracing.”

“Being able to embrace contradictions is a sign of intelligence.Or insanity.”

“They're all so much afraid of the Council that they're not afraid of anything else.”

“If you’re afraid you can’t write, the answer is to write. Every sentence you construct adds weight to the balance pan. If you’re afraid of what other people will think of your efforts, don’t show them until you write your way beyond your fear. If writing a book is impossible, write a chapter. If writing a chapter is impossible, write a page. If writing a page is impossible, write a paragraph. If writing a paragraph is impossible, write a sentence. If writing even a sentence is impossible, write a word and teach yourself everything there is to know about that word and then write another, connected word and see where their connection leads.”

“But, for now, I retreated back down the little hidden staircase into the familiar world of the basement of the Natural History Museum, and to the embrace of the trilobites.”