How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
…he had only to put the corpse where he had left the new baby at the last quarter of the moon, and the hyenas would do the rest. (1.9)
This is a rather grim start to the novel, with dead man-apes everywhere. Life in the dim dawn of man was "nasty, brutish, and short" (to quote the philosopher Thomas Hobbes). But—things are going to get better. You get the bad stuff so you can see how much better the future is going to be, with its slabs and aliens and human advancement. Progress is climbing away from the mortal grave.
Quote #2
…though even the smallest could completely destroy the ship if it slammed into it at tens of thousands of miles an hour, the chance of this happening was negligible. (18.3)
The danger from asteroids emphasizes how vulnerable human beings are…though the scientific assessment of chances is a comfort. Morality looms, but in 2001 you've always got some technobabble to make things seem better.
Quote #3
Yet still he called stupidly, as if an incantation could bring back the dead: "Hello Frank…Hello Frank…Can you read me?" (25.30)
Frank Poole's fate is probably the most traumatic, or unpleasant, death in the novel. Bowman calling out helplessly into the vast indifferent cosmos links the big universe all around to death. It's like he's floating alone in a big sea of mortality (though of course the aliens are out there to rescue him eventually).