"What they had to give was their honest presence; and while that constituted a lot, soon I asked them to let me be. If I was going to fold up again, I'd do it on my own time." (Chapter 1, page 18)

"Paul had said, 'It means six months to paraplegia, six months to quadriplegia, six months to death." (Chapter 1, page 32)

"David Sabiston promised to be at my ninetieth birthday party; so I learned, late in life, that such homely offerings to the gravely ill can have a weight that even the giver may not foresee. They can quickly swell into amulets for health and hope, even in minds more rational than mine." (Chapter 1, page 33)

"I'd likewise never shared the romantic indulgence of Dostoevsky's Ivan Karamazov who declares himself unable to yield to a God who demands or condones human suffer." (Chapter 2, page 54)

"So the longest-postponed implication of a solitary...