Next comes the realist phase ("After all, from a purely geometrical point of view a cat is only a tube with a door at the top.")

Good and bad is tricky," she said. "I ain't too certain about where people stand. P'raps what matters is which way you face." (pp. 348-349)

The short conversation that follows eventually led to a tree religion. Its tenet of faith was this: a tree that was a good tree and led a clean decent and upstanding life could be assured of a future life after death. If it was very good indeed it would eventually be reincarnated as five thousand rolls of lavatory paper.

Because no man wants to be a coward in front of a cheese.

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

There are all kinds of darkness, and all kinds of things can be found in them, imprisoned, banished, lost or hidden. Sometimes they escape. Sometimes they simply fall out. Sometimes they just can't take it any more.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.