"And at the museums, have you ever been? All abstract, that's all there is now. My uncle says it was different once; a long time back sometimes pictures said things or even showed people."

"'...it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had.'
'What?'
'We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it some day we'll stop making the god damn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them.'"