“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.”
（人は自分の死を予知できず 人生を尽きぬ泉だと思う だがすべての物事は数回起こるか起こらないか 自分の人生を左右したと思えるほど 大切な子供の頃の思い出も あと何回 心に浮かべるか 4〜5回 思い出すのがせいぜいだ あと何回 満月をながめるか せいぜい20回 だが人は無限の機会があると思う）
― Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky