Too much has been forgotten in the name of memory.

Look past the violence. There is a wonderful brimming spirit of innocence and fun.

Fame requires every kind of excess. I mean true fame, a devouring neon, not the sombre renown of waning statesmen or chinless kings.

To plot is to live. […] We start out lives in chaos, in babble. As we surge up into the world, we try to devise a shape, a plan. There is dignity in this. Your whole life is a plot, a scheme, a diagram. It is a failed scheme but that's not the point. To plot is to affirm life, to seek shape and control. Even after death, most particularly after death, the search continues. Burial rites are an attempt to complete the scheme, in ritual. Picture a state funeral, Jack. It is all precision, detail, order, design. The nation holds its breath. - (WN 292)

Stories are consoling, fiction is one of the consolation prizes for having lived in the world.

I hate my life. I'm at the point where I want to hear about other people's lives. it's like switching from fiction to biography.

We need time to lose interest in things.