The Secret River

How short a time a person had to be alive, he thought. How long to be dead.

it crossed Farren's mind that although death seemed big, life was even bigger

This place had been here long before him. It would go on sighing and breathing and being itself after he had gone, the land lapping on and on, watching, waiting, getting on with its own life.

Ain't nothing in this world just for the taking...A man got to pay a fair price for taking...Matter of give a little, take a little.