In fact, they didn't talk much at all, but they spent time together, each in his own abyss, held safe and tight by the other's silence.

Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains

Even though he was afraid to admit it, when he was with her it seemed it was worth doing all those normal things that normal people do.

People took what they wanted, they clutched at coincidences, the few there were, and made a life from them. . . . Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains.

She hadn't chosen him over all the others. The truth was that she hadn't even thought about anyone else.

The love of those we don't love in return settles on the surface and from there quickly evaporates.

Feeling special is the worst kind of cage a person can build for himself.

Why did you choose to stay here?" (...) "I don't know," he said. "It's as if there's more oxygen here.

Mattia's voice no longer stirred anything in his stomach, but he was aware of the idea of him and always would be, as the only true benchmark for everything that had come afterward.

...finally her hands, so light, holding his head still and catching all his thoughts and imprisoning them there, in the space that no longer existed between them.

Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other.

The Sufi must be able to alternate his thought between the relative and the Absolute, the approximate and the Real.

You won't know the meaning of success without knowing how it feels to fail.

When he comes back, I'm sticking to him like moss to a stone. You're going to have to cut me off with a knife to get us separated.

The earth here is beautiful. And it still belongs to the dead.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm a science fiction geek from birth - that's just who I am.

The power of recognition is one of the strongest forces for stimulating human and social action.

Attitudes toward other creatures is conditioned by one's level of security within the universe.

Living for ever would be like marrying yourself, with no possibility of a divorce.

Foreign trade clearly holds down the cost of products we buy.