Death is much too high a price to pay for the satisfaction of curiosity, needless to say. - Margaret Atwood

Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.

All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.

All of them?

Sure, he says. Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist.

Things that are falling apart encourage me: whatever else, I’m in better shape than they are.