I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this wanting. - Margaret Atwood

The past is so much safer, because whatever's in it has already happened. It can't be changed; so, in a way, there's nothing to dread.

By now you must have guessed: I come from another planet. But I will never say to you, Take me to your leaders. Even I - unused to your ways though I am - would never make that mistake. We ourselves have such beings among us, made of cogs, pieces of paper, small disks of shiny metal, scraps of coloured cloth. I do not need to encounter more of them.

Instead I will say, Take me to your trees. Take me to your breakfasts, your sunsets, your bad dreams, your shoes, your nouns. Take me to your fingers; take me to your deaths.

These are worth it. These are what I have come for.

But hatred and viciousness are addictive. You can get high on them. Once you've had a little, you start shaking if you don't get more.