The Urth of the New Sun

by Gene Wolfe

And I have heard it said that if it were not thus, the roaring of the suns would deafen the universe.

and with many women, of whom, I think, Gunnie was one, there is no better way to attain intimacy than to permit them to talk, and to listen to them.

I recalled a certain foolish tale of Gabriel, who wore the war horn of Heaven across his back, suspended on the rainbow.

reflecting that just as I was many in a single body, Tzadkiel was many bodies in a single person.

I felt instead a terrible pity for him and for us all, knowing that we are all dead to some degree, half sleeping as he was wholly asleep, deaf to the singing of life in us and around us.

such small matters do our lives turn.