As quoted in "Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'" by Ian Sample, in The Guardian (15 May 2011) http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven
Context: I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first... I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
“I wasn't particularly afraid of death itself. As Shakespeare said, die this year and you don't have to die the next.”
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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Haruki Murakami 655
Japanese author, novelist 1949Related quotes
“Tell me, Doctor, are you afraid of death?"
"I guess it depends on how you die.”
Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 601.
“I'm not afraid to die; I just don't want to be there when it happens”
“It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.”
" Death (A Play) http://books.google.com/books?id=qjRaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22It's+not+that+I'm+afraid+to+die+I+just+don't+want+to+be+there+when+it+happens%22&pg=PA99#v=onepage".
Without Feathers (1975)
In Bitter American Exile, the Shah's Twin Sister, Ashraf, Defends Their Dynasty (1980)
““Are you that afraid to die?”
“No. I simply like to live.””
Source: Tau Zero (1970), Chapter 7 (p. 78)