the man who yearned to know everything

In wretched little lives like that, someone must intervene.  Or at least mark their sad comings and goings.  Mark and if possible permanently record, so they'll be remembered.  For a better day, later on, when people will understand."

"Imagine being sentient but not alive. Seeing and even knowing, but not alive. Just looking out. Recognizing but not being alive. A person can die and still go on. Sometimes what looks out at you from a person's eyes maybe died back in childhood. What's dead in there still looks out. It's not just the body looking at you with nothing in it; there's still something in there but it died and just keeps on looking and looking; it can't stop looking."

Another person said, "That's what it means to die, to not be able to stop looking at whatever's in front of you. Some darn thing placed directly there, with nothing you can do about it such as selecting anything or changing anything. You can only accept what's put there as it is."

He sat on the stairs, hunched over, his arms wrapped around him, seeing and seeing.