The Last Samurai

by Helen DeWitt

if you’re doing what you want to do and in some way bringing value to the life of others, then you’re a successful human being.

The Alien is whatever you want to call the thing that finds specious reasons for cruelty

and though I might have to wait another 30 or 40 years for my body to join the non-sentient things in the world at least in the meantime it would be a less absolutely senseless sentience.

The thing that was wrong was that nothing was ever going to change.

What you’ve got to understand is that you simply can’t afford to act as if you were dealing with adults. You’re not dealing with people who want to understand how something actually happens to work. You’re dealing with people who would like you to rekindle a childlike sense of wonder.