Creating some god for one's inspirations was always a good way to avoid accusations of pride should the scheme succeed, as well as the blame if did n… - Margaret Atwood

You don't look back along time but down through it, like water. Sometimes this comes to the surface, sometimes that, sometimes nothing. Nothing goes away.

Children were vehicles for passing things along. These things could be kingdoms, rich wedding gifts, stories, grudges, blood feuds. Through children, alliances were forged; through children, wrongs were avenged. To have a child was to set loose a force in the world.

It made him feel invisible — not that he wanted to feel anything else.