"How many times had I come and gone through the dreaded gateway? How many times had I been born and died young? And how often to the same parents? I … - Ben Okri

"That's good. Life is full of riddles that only the dead can answer," was Dad's reply.

What hope is there for individual reality or authenticity when the forces of violence and orthodoxy, the earthly powers of guns and bombs and manipulated public opinion make it impossible for us to be authentic and fulfilled human beings?

The only hope is in the creation of alternative values, alternative realities. The only hope is in daring to redream one's place in the world - a beautiful act of imagination, and a sustained act of self becoming. Which is to say that in some way or another we breach and confound the accepted frontiers of things.

Don't read what everyone else is reading. Check them out later, cautiously.