"Our lives teach us who we are." I have learned the hard way that when you permit anyone else's description of reality to supplant your own ... then … - Salman Rushdie

The responsibility for violence lies with those who perpetrate it.

"Running along the bank was a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and looking worriedly at a clock. Appearing and disappearing at various points on both banks was a dark blue British police telephone booth, out of which a perplexed-looking man holding a screwdriver would periodically emerge. A group of dwarf bandits could be seen disappearing into a hole in the sky. "Time travelers," said Nobodaddy in a voice of gentle disgust. "They're everywhere these days.

Maybe unhappiness is the continuum through which a human life moves, and joy just a series of blips, of islands in the stream.