Part One, p. 5
We embrace to be embraced. We embrace our children to be folded in the arms of the future, to pass ourselves on beyond death, to be transported. That it how it was when I embraced you, always. We bear children in order to be mothered by them.

Part One, p. 16
"When I was a child," I said, "I used to go downhills on a bicycle with no brakes to speak of. It belonged to my elder brother. He would dare me. I was completely without fear. Children cannot conceive of what it is to die. It never crosses their minds that they may not be immortal."

Part One, p. 23
There I lay in the dark listening to the music of the stars and the crackling and humming that accompanied it like the dust of meteors, smiling, my heart filled with gratitude for this good news...