Heath Lucis

“The qualities that make for excellence in children's literature can be summed up in a single word: imagination. And imagination as it relates to the child is, to my mind, synonymous with fantasy. Contrary to most of the propaganda in books for the young, childhood is only partly a time of innocence. It is, in my opinion, a time of seriousness, bewilderment, and a good deal of suffering. It's also possibly the best of all times. Imagination for the child is the miraculous, freewheeling device he uses to course his way through the problems of every day....It's through fantasy that children achieve catharsis.”
― Maurice Sendak

“Jednom sam čučao nasred potoka i promatrao jednog malog pauka kako pokušava prebaciti svoju nit na drugu stranu. On je, činilo se, bio odlučio napraviti najveću mrežu na cijelom potoku i zato je izabrao mjesto gdje je potok bio najširi. Pričvrstio bi svoju nit, skočio u zrak i pao u vodu. Voda bi ga ponijela, on bi iz sve snage plivao, uspentrao bi se na obalu i vratio do iste one paprati. Onda bi ponovo pokušao. Kad se treći put vratio na paprat, do-puzao je do vrška jedne grane i legao; prednjih nogu prekriženih ispod brade, proučavao je vodu. Pretpostavljao sam da je bio blizu toga da odustane - ja sam bio, guzica mi se bila ukočila zbog zime od čučanja u hladnoj vodi. On je ležao tamo proučavajući i razmišljajući. Onda mu je nešto palo na pamet! Počeo je skakati gore dolje, gore dolje, i grana se počela njihati gore dolje. I dalje je tako skakao, skakao... i onda, iznenada, kad je grana bila jako visoko, odskočio je, raširio svoj kišobran - i uspio!
Bio je sav ponosan i skakao od oduševljenja, dok skoro nije pao u vodu. Na kraju je ipak napravio najveću mrežu koju sam ikada vidio.”
― Forrest Carter, Malo drvo

“If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil

“The official report was a collection of cold, hard data, an objective "after-action report" that would allow future generations to study the events of that apocalyptic decade without being influenced by the "human factor." But isn't the human factor what connects us so deeply to our past? Will future generations care as much for chronologies and casualty statistics as they would for the personal accounts of individuals not so different from themeslves? By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from a history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it?”
― Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War