“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.”

“One can only remember what has been consciously experienced.”

“Some doctors say a person who has only had same-sex attractions is, like, a zero. A person who has only had opposite-sex attractions is, like, a ten. He says most people fall between one and nine.”

“Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person. It has both emotional and cognitive aspects, involving the ability to tune into the emotions experienced by another.”

“How is a man fortunate to live in the darkness, brother?""Why do you wonder?" asked Blaise. "For only he who has lived in darkness truly knows and values the light.”

“If a person survives an ordinary span of sixty years or more, there is every chance that his or her life as a shapely story has ended and all that remains to be experienced is epilogue. Life is not over, but the story is.”