"It seemed even the smallest exercise of arbitrary authority could go to one’s head like wine. I told myself to remember this when I was older."

“Sometimes the best in people comes out during emergencies. Sometimes not.”

“Yes, I prayed. Why not? The advantage of being an agnostic over being an atheist is that I always had the possibility of being wrong, and could still entertain the hope that the universe was better organized than it appeared to be.”

“There is no magic, only mysteries explained, and mysteries unexplained.”

“Ripples on a pond cannot touch a bird hovering above it.”

“Whatever dwelt among the stars had nothing to do with earthly concerns. I wonder if you will understand me if I said, staring at the indifference of the cold heavens, that I never felt less religious than in that moment, but staring at their majesty, the grandeur, I never felt more. Cruel Saturn’s created world was worthy of awe.”

“Comedy is easy. Intrigue is hard.”