Elaine’s Reviews > Atmosphere > Status Update

p188: “You already are a part of the Earth. What better reason do we have to take care of this Earth
and everything on it than the knowledge that we are of one another?”

p148: "The whole sky makes sense to me now," Vanessa said. "Because of you.”

p143: “It's 1981, and I'm done pretending sexist jokes are funny just so men will give me a chance at something I'm probably better at than they are."

p90: “Being human was such a lonely endeavor. We alone have consciousness; we are the only intelligent life force that we know of in the galaxy. We have no one but one another. (…) We are made of the same things as the stars and the planets. Remembering that connection brought Joan comfort. It also brought her some sense of responsibility.”

P90: “That's what made me fall in love with astronomy as a kid," she said. "That the night sky is a map, and once you know how to read it, it will always be there. You'll never be lost."
Vanessa smiled at her. And it made something in Joan want to keep talking. "I’ve always felt like, when I look at the stars, I am reminded that I am never alone," she said.

p44: “To look up at the nighttime sky is to become a part of a long line of people throughout human history who looked above at that same set of stars. It is to witness time unfolding. That was the stuff that made her knees buckle.”

“So when you look out at the sky, the farther you can see, the further back you are looking in time.
The space between you and the star is time.”