Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life. On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I wan...

"And now, weak, short of breath, my once-firm muscles melted away by cancer, I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the super natural or spiritual but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life - achieving a sense of peace within oneself...

"And now, at this juncture, when death is no longer an abstract concept, but a presence - an all-to-close, not-to-be-denied presence, I am again surrounding myself, as I did when I was a boy with metals and minerals, little emblems of eternity." Oliv...

[At eighty] "One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience and, perhaps...