“The beauty of artifacts is in how they reassure us we’renot the first to die.”

“But those who seek only reassurance from life will never be more than tourists—seeing everything and trying to possess what can only be felt.Beauty is the shadow of imperfection.”

“It's tempting to imagine how we could hurt someone close, because it reminds us how fiercely we love them.”

“I wonder if things can happen too early or too late or if everything happens at exactly the right time. If so, how sad and beautiful.”

“But sometimes, when confronted by something of unfathomable beauty, the bars of the cage around us begin to tremble. So I ran away to protect myself and remained a prisoner.”

“When Bach died some of his children sold his scores to the butcher they had decided the paper was more useful for wrapping meat. In a small village in Germany a father brought home a limp goose wrapped in paper that was covered with strange and beautiful symbols.”

“Death is the most sophisticated form of beauty, and the most difficult to accept.”