“People remain what they are even if their faces fall apart.”

“Hey, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart.”

“Plastic surgery is a way for people to buy themselves a few years before they have to truly confront what ageing is, which of course is not that your looks are falling apart, but that you are falling apart and some-day you will have fallen apart and ceased to exist.”

“But things don't just fall apart. People break them.”

“The Talisman has been missing for several years or so. And no one knows about it — except Galactic Central and the — what would you call it? — the hierarchy, I suppose, the organization of mystics who takes care of the spiritual setup. And yet, even with no one knowing, the galaxy is beginning to show wear. It's coming apart at the seams. In time to come, it may fall apart. As if the Talisman represented a force that all unknowingly held the races of the galaxy together, exerting its influence even when it remained unseen.”

“I am a mother and mothers don’t have the luxury of falling apart in front of their children, even when they are afraid, even when their children are adults.”

“Do what you will. Even if you tear yourself apart, most people will continue doing the same things.”

“Art belongs to the domain of the unreal and it is only when people try to make a reality of it that it falls apart.”

“Technical people don't make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart.”

“It's strange, but when it comes right down to it I never do fall apart--even when I'm sure I will.”