Kamchatka

We’re all born with the right equipment, but we’re not born with instructions for how to use it.’

Anything worth knowing, he said, had to be learned.

Life may not be fair, but it has its moments.

the back of the head being the least expressive part of the human body (I think it’s called the ‘occiput’ just to make it sound interesting)

Snakes shed their skin, cats their fur, manta rays their teeth. Man sheds used-up objects: he leaves an open Nesquik tin and a dirty glass on the kitchen counter, an open toothpaste tube, unmade beds

Made in Poland.’ What had Lucas been doing in Poland? It was a weird place to go, even for tourists who go to Europe. Tourists go to Madrid or Paris, or London or Rome, but Poland? It would have been better if it read ‘Made in Transylvania’, because at least then it would have made sense.

It was tempting to create a physical barrier to stop the toads from getting into the water, a solution as drastic as it would be effective. But I didn’t want to alter the course of their lives, to usurp the preeminent role of Destiny. Besides, the swimming pool might be of crucial importance to the toads without my knowing – it might be full of their eggs.

abandoned the sea some 400 million years ago (by my chronology), but the sea has never abandoned us. It lives on in us in our blood, our sweat, our tears.

People say Shakespeare’s soliloquies are contrived but what’s the difference between Hamlet talking to a skull and papá talking to the TV?

Kamchatka is a paradox, a kingdom of extremes, a contradiction in terms