I know that Bill liked Mysteries and Hardboiled Crime books just as I do. This is something I got from Ed Gorman a couple of years ago in another context, but I think Bill would have liked it's message. It's from the great John D. MacDonald, author of many of the 20th Century's classic crime novels and creator of the Travis McGee series of books.

From A Deadly Shade of Gold:
“It is so damn strange about the dead. Life is like a big ship, all lights and action and turmoil, chugging across a dark sea. You have to drop the dead ones over the side. An insignificant little splash, and the ship goes on. For them the ship stops at that instant. For me Sam was back there somewhere, further behind the ship every day. I could look back and think of all the others I knew, dropped all the way back to the horizon and beyond, and so much had changed since they were gone and they wouldn’t know the people aboard, know the rules of the deck games. The voyage saddens as you lose them. You wish they could see how things are. You know that inevitably they’ll drop you over the side, you and everyone you have loved and known, little consecutive splashes in the silent sea, while the ship maintains its unknown course. ”