“You think that it’s not magic that keeps you alive? Just ‘cause you understand the mechanics of how something works, doesn’t make it any less of a miracle. Which is just another word for magic. We’re all kept alive by magic, Sookie. My magic’s just a little different from yours, that’s all.”

“Why do we always begin to think about people when they die? I think we should think about people while they’re still alive! That way, they can know that we’re thinking about them! I always tell people when I’m thinking about them, or that I thought about them, or that I have been thinking about them and it almost always scares them away, but so what, I am practicing the art of life and if that is frightening to them then maybe they need to start living while they’re still alive!”

“I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)… ‘I spoke to three scholars,’ [the character says ‘at last.’] …two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]’ …I can see that he’s excited. [narrator]’ …Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a ‘literary’ writer based on this quote. A ‘literary’ author knows that a character’s excitement should be ‘shown’ in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator’s commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the ‘I can see that he’s excited’ sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.(Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.)Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho … Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), ‘a remote human possibility.’ He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation—none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else—suggests that he is not happy!”

“Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime—if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more—was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter shallow, superficial romance, where the top priority was how beautiful a person was on the outside.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“If I were to believe in God enough to call him a murderer, then I might also believe enough that he, as a spirit, exists beyond death; and therefore only he could do it righteously. For the physical being kills a man and hatefully sends him away, whereas God, the spiritual being, kills a man and lovingly draws him nigh.”

“Yes, we all die but there’s a tendency to focus on the end too much. Life can be a wondrous, sparkling comet trail that we leave in our wake for others to marvel at.”

“Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?”

“My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered.”

“Only when you accept that one day you’ll die can you let go, and make the best out of life. And that’s the big secret. That’s the miracle.”