The truly radical work of art is the one that offers you something to hold on to in the midst of the flux of possibility. - Robert Hughes

The sense of not having the whole story that comes from living close up to traumatic events.

The best thing fishing taught me, I think was how to be alone. Without this ability no writer can really survive or work, and there is a strong relationship between the activity of the fisherman, letting his line down into unknown depths in the hope of catching an unseen prey (which may be worth keeping, or may not) and that of a writer trolling his memory and reflections for unexpected jags and jerks of association.

Our culture puts enormous emphasis on "socialization", on the supposedly supreme virtues of establishing close relations with others.