“Will it be the idea of absence of any number-or the idea of a number for such absence? Is it to be the mark of the empty, or the empty mark?”

“You can tell about people by their absences. By the shape of the emptiness they leave behind.”

“Be careful, Angel, he says. When you stare at a man like that, he’s likely to git any number of number of … innerestin ideas.”

“Sometimes you can only feel something by its absence. By the empty spaces it leaves behind.”

“You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness.”

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13: 16–18”