“For, as I drew closer and closer to the end, I travel in the circle, nearer and nearer to the beginning.”

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“A dead man is of no use to anyone.”

Michael Crichton, The 13th Warrior

“Death teaches you, just like life does. It ain’t ours to question.”

Bethany Campbell, Hear No Evil

“To be, or not to be – that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep –

No more – and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep -

To sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“What I wanted was to die among strangers, untroubled, beneath a cloudless sky. And yet my desire differed from the sentiments of that ancient Greek who wanted to die under the brilliant sun. What I wanted was some natural, spontaneous suicide. I wanted a death like that of a fox, not yet well versed in cunning, that walks carelessly along a mountain path and is shot by a hunter because of its own stupidity…”

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

“Any man who dies in his sleep is said by them [the North people] to be strangled by the maran, or mare of the night. This creature is woman, which makes such a death shameful, for to die at the hands of a woman is degrading above all things.”

Michael Crichton, The 13th Warrior

“Everything happens for a purpose. Some souls are supposed to leave life quick. There’s a lesson in it for them.”

Bethany Campbell, Hear No Evil

“… how closely lust was akin to death.”

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

“The horror! The horror!”

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“All that lives must die,

Passing through nature to eternity.”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind our death.”

Michael Crichton, The 13th Warrior

“I somehow looked forward to death impatiently, with a sweet expectation.”

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

“Sex and death are the two great mysteries of life.”

P.S. Somtow, Jasmine Nights