Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fa — Dan Simmons

"The human mind gets used to strangeness very quickly if it does not exhibit interesting behavior."

"To see and feel one’s beloved naked for the first time is one of life’s pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include that truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes."

"Belief in one’s identity as a poet or writer prior to the acid test of publication is as naive and harmless as the youthful belief in one’s immortality...and the inevitable disillusionment is just as painful."

"In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes."

"“I ignore religions,” said Brawne Lamia. “I do not succumb to them.”"

"Dogma and hierarchy are endemic to such structures...indeed, such are the structures of any theocracy."