By mere burial man arrives not at bliss and in the future life throughout its whole infinite range they will seek for happiness as vainly as they sought it here who seek it in aught else than that which so closely surrounds them here - the Infinite.

I always have one or two sometimes more Navajo or other tribes' cultural elements in mind when I start a plot. In Thief of Time I wanted to make readers aware of Navajo attitude toward the dead respect for burial sites.