When hope is lost, the mind protects us with denial, and my denial protected me from facing what I knew.

The mountain was teaching me a hard lesson: camaraderie is a noble thing, but in the end death is an opponent each of us would face in solitude.

Each of us realized, with a clarity that is hard to describe, that the only crucial thing in life is the chance to love and be loved.

We understood, intuitively, that no one in this awful place could be judged by the standards of the ordinary world.

Things make sense. There are rules and realities that will not change to suit your needs. It’s your job to understand those rules. If you do, and if you work hard and work smart, you will be all right.

A human being, as I’ve said before, gets used to anything.

We were playing a game against an unknown and unforgiving opponent. The stakes were terrible – play well or die – but we didn’t even know the ground rules.

My duty is to fill my time on earth with as much life as possible, to become a little more human every day, and to understand that we only become human when we love.

I tell them I am not at peace in spite of what I suffered, but because of it.

Even here, even as we suffer, life is still worth living...