" He saw life, in that instant, as a series of borrowings. You slopped together a brain from atomic mud, your cells clustered together and built you a frame, and you grew layers of flesh and draped it over your bones. You took vibrations from the air and made a voice; you drew light through your eyes and the world appeared like projector thrusting an image onto a dark screen. You learned rules, and your feelings shaped themselves into something beyond your control, a weapon you had to master if you had hoped to destroy anything specific. "

― J.A. Rock , The Grand Ballast