
Variant: I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.
"Sometimes", § 7
Red Bird (2008)
Context: Death waits for me, I know it, around
one corner or another.
This doesn't amuse me.
Neither does it frighten me. After the rain, I went back into the field of sunflowers.
It was cool, and I was anything but drowsy.
I walked slowly, and listened to the crazy roots, in the drenched earth, laughing and growing.
Variant: I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.
“The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.”
Source: The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One
“Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long.”
Source: The Book Thief