The Narrator

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

"It is often said that the mind is a fortress. But that is wrong. The mind is a storm, a tempest, a roiling sea that crashes upon the shores of existence."

"You can't help but admire the tremendous effort that he puts into each stroke."

"I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye."

"It is often said that grief passes with time, the sharp edges becoming soft, but time has a way of resurrecting memory in unexpected forms."

"The sea is a mirror of the psyche. Sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent, always revealing truth to those who observe carefully."

"Survival is the art of staying human when the world demands you become something less."

"I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go."

"If you don't have a story, what you have is a report."

"It is often said that life is a journey. I completely agree."

"I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose."

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

"Animals in the wild lead lives of compulsion and necessity within an ecosystem."

"Despair is the price one pays for every creature comfort."

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity—it's envy."

"I am an observer of life, not a participant in it."

"Survival can twist the mind of an otherwise virtuous person into compromising madness."

"I have come to the conclusion that Richard Parker is more of an idea."

"That's what fiction is about, isn't it—the selective transforming of reality."

"Animals cannot speak, so we assume they don't think or feel as deeply as we do."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story."

"Reasonable men adapt themselves to their world; unreasonable men adapt the world to themselves."

"Humans are capable of both magnificent achievement and terrible cruelty."

"I must say a word about my dear Anandi."

"If you stumble, make it part of the dance."

"We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves with our minds."

"Ordinariness is the only thing worth celebrating."

"In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

"Suffering hardens even as it softens the soul."

"The ending comes when you least expect it and most need it."