“I am still alive then. That may come in useful.”

“Even now I cannot believe that I am still alive and writing this account of the emperor's death. I put my hands to my eyes, wondering if what I am relating here is not all a dream - or maybe it is not a dream: perhaps it is a delusion and I am mad, the victim of some extraordinary and monstrous hallucination. How comes it that when he is dead I am still numbered among the living?”

“I may not be where I need to be but at least I am not where I used to be.”

“I may not be where I need to be but I thank God I am not where I used to be.”

“Am I something? And the answer comes, already am, always was, and i still have time to be”

“I am not the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars.”