All novels are fantasies. Some are more honest about it.

That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.

I could speculate, but it would be just speculation and the kind of thing that you would get in with a science fiction story. And if I was doing a science fiction story then I would come up with what can go wrong with this system.

I was trapped in admiration for what I had once admired, as a fly in amber remains the captive of some long-vanished pine.

God is the nest we build together.

Do not start a story unless you have an ending in mind. You can change the story's ending if you wish, but you should always have a destination.

Hope is a psychological mechanism unaffected by external realities.