Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell explores in brilliantly original fiction the fundamental questions of reality and identity.

Favorite quotes from the book:

Peace, though beloved of our Lord, is a cardinal virtue only if your neighbours share your conscience.

If people praise you, you're not walking your own path.

Anything is true if enough people believe it is.

... my dreams are the single unpredictable factor in my zoned days and nights. Nobody allots them, or censors them. Dreams are all I have ever truly owned.

What was all this knowledge for, I would ask myself, if I could not use it to better my existence?

Time is what stops history happening at once; time is the speed at which the past disappears.

My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?

You say you're "depressed" - all I see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn't mean you're defective - it just means you're human.