“We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat.”

“Another favorite position of his was sitting with his back to me, his rear half resting on the floor of the boat and his front half on the bench, his face buried into the stern, paws right next to his head, looking as if we were playing hide-and-seek and he were the one counting. In this position he tended to lie very still, with only the occasional twitching of his ears to indicate that he is not necessarily sleeping.”

“We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?”

“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”

“Life and death live and die in exactly the same spot, the body. It is from there that both babies and cancers are born.”

“Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror.”

“I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.”