Pi Patel

"The world isn't just the way it is. It is the way it is because of the way the world became the way it was."

"I have nothing to say of my antecedents, nor is it any matter. God does not love me because of my ancestors."

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

"I am the sole witness to my own life."

"Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not."

"Faith is a gift I do not take for granted. Forgive me, I am getting ahead of myself."

"I know zoos are no longer in peoples good graces. Religion, I take it, is in the same boat."

"It is often better not to know things."

"The reason death sticks so closely to life is that it is something universal."

"There is no protection against the events of the world."

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."

"I had to create a life raft in my mind. I had to convince myself that I would not die."

"Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own."

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places."

"My life is like a memento mori painting from the Renaissance: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of my desires."

"I do not wish to add any details or make this story any more complicated than it already is."

"Every interpretation of an event is a version of the event."

"Can you imagine what it would be like to live at sea, as I did, and come to know it as a friend?"

"I survived and arrived."

"The world breaks everyone. Some become strong in the broken places."

"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent."

"Animals in the wild lead lives of compulsion and necessity within an enemy's talon or tooth."

"A person can get used to eating almost anything."

"Habit is the guide to all mankind."

"The sea is nothing but a succession of gazes."

"I learned the language of the animals: a vast vocabulary of snarls and chirps and grunts."

"There is something to be said for having a story to be believed and believed in by those who listen."

"I pray daily to various deities as well. It suits me."

"The only effective defense is a well-exercised imagination."

"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."