How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph), with the exception of Part V, which runs (Part#. "Short Title". Paragraph). Part V has no numbered chapters—only title headings.
Quote #10
The whole mystery of human life resides in the fact that it is spent in the immediate proximity of, and even in direct contact with, that border, that it is separated from it not by kilometers but by barely a millimeter. (VII.6.5)
Jan has some well-developed ideas about "the border"—except he can't define what it actually is. We're not 100 percent sure what the border separates, other than life and death. It also seems to do with age, or socially acceptable behavior, or where one falls in relation to the political party in power at any given time. The border shifts, but one thing's certain: you're either on the right side of it or the wrong one. And it doesn't take much to cross the line.