John Crowley

Rivers, like men, only learn why they were born near their end. – José Saramago (1922-2010) “Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” – W.E.B. Du Bois 乌托邦（utopia）由来已久，其要旨就是用简单的方法解决复杂的问题，其根源就是面对复杂的世界人总是希望可以有一个简单的解释。长久以来，人们知道这是做不到的，却从来没有放弃，总是不断尝试不断失败。因此反乌托邦（dystopia）也会时不时出现。 讲故事应该比乌托邦的历史更久远。一个故事就是对世界或对人生的一个简单解释，让我们多一种理解。这也是源于人渴望对复杂不确定的世事有所明了。讲故事写故事的冲动就是为了构建一个虚拟世界，从而更好地理解面前的现实世界。 世界是复杂的不确定的，而人自己其实也是复杂的变化的，没有人确知世界和自己的未来。 There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless. – Milan Kundera ...

“It is very nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.” – James Baldwin “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” – Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All Don’t just teach your children to read … Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything. – George Carlin Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope. – Theodore Roszak, 1933-2011 ...

Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand. -- W. B. Yeats, the stolen child, 1886 Writing and reading about Fairies some may deem to be mark of a trifling turn of mind. On this subject … dulce est desipere in loco. (It is sweet to be silly in places.) – Thomas Keightley, the world guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and other little people ...