“Human life was rarely shapely, only intermittently meaningful, its clumsiness the inevitable consequence of the victory of content over form, of what and when over how and why.”

“The inevitable triumph of illusion over reality that was the single most obvious truth about the history of the human race.”

“The point is always reached after which the gods no longer share their lives with mortal men and women, they die or wither away or retire... Now that they've gone, the high drama's over. What remains is ordinary human life.”

“Everything has shape, if you look for it. There is no escape from form.”

“Not all possibilities are open to us. The world is finite; our hopes spill over its rim.”

“When you’ve fallen from the sky, been abandoned by your friend, suffered police brutality, metamorphosed into a goat, lost your work as well as your wife, learned the power of hatred and regained human shape, what is there left to do but, as you would no doubt phrase it, demand your rights?”

“Sometimes it's just over and you can't make it all right. Justification by works: an overrated idea.”