“And what was the truth? Simply enough: that the world in which we are born, the world in which we spend our every waking hour… that world is an illusion. It is a beautiful fantasy, a bright and shining madness, full of pleasure and pain, appetite and satiation. There is love and hate, the seasons and the heavens and all manner of colorful baubles whose only purpose is to distract from the reality that lies beyond. All of it trickery, and reality waiting just a hair’s breadth away, crouched like a starving predator, ready to devour any hand that might come plunging through.”