I had to learn my circumstances just as you did.”

You and I—we’re just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?”

“Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing?

“And I’m saying that I think you are mistaking something learned for something instinctual.”

You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it.

You’re an animal, Sibling Dex. You are not separate or other. You’re an animal. And animals have no purpose. Nothing has a purpose. The world simply is.

Why do you have to have one in order to feel content?”

“So, this is a familial expectation.”

“So, you see me as more person than object, even though that’s very, very wrong, but you can’t see me as a friend, even though I’d like to be?”