“What are a friend's books for if not to be borrowed?”

“I'm going to be dead before I read the books I'm going to read.”

“Comparing what we're looking for misses the point. It's wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we're going out the way we came in. That's why you can't believe in the afterlife, Valentine. Believe in the after, by all means, but not the life. Believe in God, the soul, the spirit, the infinite, believe in angels if you like, but not in the great celestial get-together for an exchange of views. If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait, but what a drag. Better to struggle on knowing that failure is final.”

“Audiences know what to expect, and that is all that they are prepared to believe in.”

“Be happy -- if you're not even happy, what's so good about surviving?”

“What a fine persecution—to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.”

“...Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that what is taken to be true. It's the currency дf living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions. What do you assume?”