Why should we become like you? We pride ourselves on not being like you. - Robert Silverberg

Morality after the fact, said Eli from the rear, is worse than no morality at all.

My life was in crisis. All my values were becoming meaningless. I was discovering that my chosen profession was empty, foolish, as useless as—as playing chess.

Contrast is everything, Ned said. Incongruity is essential. The secret of art lies in attaining a sense of proper juxtapositions, and what is religion if not a category of art?