We are all born like Catholics. . . In limbo, without religion.

— Yann Martel

We are random animals. That is who we are, and we have only ourselves, nothing more--there is no greater relationship.

— Yann Martel

What his uncle does not understand is that in walking backwards, his back to the world, his back to God, he is not grieving. He is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object?

— Yann Martel

What is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities - the getting of food, clothing and shelter? Why can't reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer? Why such a vast net of there's so little fish to catch?

— Yann Martel

When I corrected her, I told her that in fact she was not so wrong; that Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims.

— Yann Martel

When the course of experience made me see that there is no savior and no special grace, no remission beyond the human, that pain is to be endured and fades, if it fades, only with time, then God became nothing to me but a dyslexic dog, with neither bark nor bite.

— Yann Martel

When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.

— Yann Martel

When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.

— Yann Martel

Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer?

— Yann Martel

You might have noticed that I have been sending you used books. I have done this not to save money, but to make a point which is that a used book, unlike a used car, hasn't lost any of its initial value. A good story rolls of the lot into the hands of its new reader as smoothly as the day it was written. And there's another reason for these used paperbacks that never cost much even when new; I like the idea of holding a book that someone else has held, of eyes running over lines that have already seen the light of other eyes. That, in one image, is the community of readers, is the communion of literature.

— Yann Martel