What the local politicians actually meant was that they hoped to claim the land in the name of the public and then make the usual profits privatizing it. There was a principle at stake. They had to ensure their friends and not outsiders got the benefit.

Trapped. Sinking. Can't be myself. Made into what other people expect. Is that everyone's fate? Were the great individualists the products of their friends who wanted a great individualist as a friend?

I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas.

Time is the enemy of identity

Heroes betray us. By having them, in real life, we betray ourselves.

Legends are best left as legends and attempts to make them real are rarely successful

The past is a script we are constantly rewriting.