H.G. Tannhaus 1986 quotes from Dark

Why do we decide for one thing and against another? But does it matter whether the decision is based upon the consequence of a series of causal links? Or that instead it stems from an undefined feeling inside me? Perhaps everything in my life boils down to this one moment. That I’m part of this puzzle. One that I can neither understand nor influence.

Have you ever heard the term "bootstrap paradox"? Well, in a bootstrap paradox an artifact, or any information, is sent back to the past from the future. And this, in turn, creates an infinite cycle in which the artifact doesn't have a real origin anymore. It exists without ever having been created. To put it simply, this book has traveled back through time. It found me before I even wrote it. It's all a question of origin. Where is the beginning? When is the beginning? Is there a beginning at all? The world is full of such paradoxes.

As humans, we struggle to accept our own mortality. One holds onto events that are long gone. We long in vain for a way to turn back time...to reverse death. But when time is relative and nothing really ever passes, and the simultaneous overlapping of different realities is possible, shouldn't it then also be possible to bring back something that was believed to be dead long ago and to create a new reality in which the dead live again? If our life is defined as everything between birth and death, it exists there ad infinitum. Could we succeed in cheating death by finding a way to bring back life? There, in between time.

Fate is playing a cruel trick on us. And yet we will always believe that there is a way to turn the tide in our favor. If we only want it hard enough. Man is able to pursue any goal, no matter how unattainable it may seem, over the course of an entire lifetime. No resistance, no obstacle is great enough to stop the human will in its tracks. Isn't this stubbornness in our striving what distinguishes us from animals that know only short-term desire? And throughout the ages, is not this unquenchable thirst at the heart of any progress that is ever made? No matter what motivates our will, it guides us on our path. We will only be able to let go once we've reached our goal.

You can choose as you want, but your wants are chosen for you. All the paths we take in our lives, every choice we make is guided by our deepest desires. It's pointless to fight this sense of want. It determines every one of our actions, no matter how difficult and unimaginable they seem.

Will you tell me what the future's like?

The Stranger

I'm hoping that by tomorrow, it'll already be different from today.

Have you ever wondered if it's possible to rewind time?

Yes. Yes I have.

And? Possible, you think? To go back and try changing anything?

You're such an adult now. Adult enough. For quite a while now, I've wanted to be able to turn back time. But my place is not in the past. Nor in the future. It's here, with you.

Are those my parents? I thought you said there were no photos.

That photo's not you. Those aren't your parents. That's my son and his wife. And my granddaughter. They died in a car accident. That night, when it happened, I woke up. There was a noise down in the store. There were two women. Strange looking. They were carrying a bundle. That bundle was you. They said that on that night everything would be taken from me. And then I'd be given everything. Then I got the call. On the bridge, a truck... had forced my son's car into the river. They only ever found the bodies of my son and his wife in there. My granddaughter...was never found. [hands her a watch] This is the only thing you brought with you.

I don't understand. Who are my parents?

Charlotte.

Who am I?

I just don't know. I don't know.