I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

Wow. Great article. The little gem above is his take on his imminent passage from life. I’ve always been fascinated by death, and by what the people who are palpably facing it have to say about it.