“I am afraid of reduction. After a lifetime's independence- yes, selfish independence- I am terrified of being reduced to childhood once more, to helplessness, to seas of confusion from which the cruel lucid intervals poke up like rock shoals. I don't want to sit in my chair and be fed, much less do I want to be handed over to medical professionals.”

“I am not afraid of death, which after all can't be far away. What does frighten me, though, is the halfway stage.”

“I am afraid of losing what I have already valued.”

“I've grieved enough for his life cut short and for mine for running on for so long with so little in it. It's weakness now, but I suppose I am crying out of a general sense of loss. Maybe I am mourning for the human condition.”

“Some things I can never forget. I must not. Otherwise what do I have left?”

“I will continue my path, but I will keep a memory always.”

“As well as remembering too little, I have seen too much”