Bajir

“He stared ahead vacantly, down the chilly streets of that desolate cow town of learning. “You know why I love games? For the same reason I love literature. In a game . . . in a good poem or story? Death is the mother of beauty.” He stopped and twisted to face me. “Know what I’m sayin’?”
― Richard Powers, Playground

“This road No one on it As autumn ends —BASHO, near Kyoto, weeks before his death”
― Pico Iyer, Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells

“The most unfortunate thing about being an atheist wasn’t the loss of God and all the comfort and reassurance of God—no small things—but the loss of a vital human vocabulary. Grace, charity, transcendence: I felt them as surely as any believer, even if we differed on the ultimate cause, and yet I had no right words for them.”
― Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour