Randolph Henry Ash: “What is it? My dear?”
Christabel LaMotte: “Ah, how can we bear it?”
Randolph Henry Ash: “Bear what?”
Christabel LaMotte: “This. For so short a time. How can we sleep this time away?”
Randolph Henry Ash: “We can be quiet together, and pretend – since it is only the beginning – that we have all the time in the world.”
Christabel LaMotte: “And every day we shall have less. And then none.”
Randolph Henry Ash: “Would you rather, therefore, have had nothing at all?”
Christabel LaMotte: “No. This is where I have always been coming to. Since my time began. And when I go away from here, this will be the mid-point, to which everything ran, before, and from which everything will run. But now, my love, we are here, we are now, and those other times are running elsewhere.

A.S. Byatt