Perhaps the first fire, the first tool, the first wheel, the first carving in a limestone cave, had each possessed a symbolic rather than a practical value, had each been pressed to serve distortion rather than reality.
– Brian Aldiss, Greybeard
Remember the first and last goodbye
Looking for answers to untie
We traveled the long road
Well, love will often lead us awry
– Tunng, Santiago
Like most people, [he] is simply searching for an activity to label his existence.
– Jerzy Kosinski, The Devil Tree
I remember a letter she sent me once. “With you,” she wrote, “I feel the reverse of that fear I usually feel with others. I’m sure you’ll accept the parts of me that are complex but I’m not sure about the parts that are ridiculously simple.”
– Jerzy Kosinski, The Devil Tree
I tried to explain that the freedom I have always desired has nothing to do with being able to travel or with surrendering responsibility; it means not being afraid, not disguising myself and not performing, not structuring my feelings to gain another’s approval.
– Jerzy Kosinski, The Devil Tree
One of the characteristics of age was that all avenues of talk led backward in time.
– Brian Aldiss, Greybeard
Now he could understand why people set fire to their own homes. Fire was clean; cleanliness was a principle that man had otherwise lost.
– Brian Aldiss, Greybeard
There’s a level where force is bad, but when you get to the sort of level we are down to, force becomes strength, and then it’s a positive blessing.
– Brian Aldiss, Greybeard
I don’t much care where so long as I get somewhere.
– Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’
– Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland