literature

Man is the animal that tells stories about himself to himself. — Salman Rushdie, Lecture at the University of Iowa (March 2004) It’s been years since I sat in that lecture hall, but Rushdie’s description of humans as storytelling creatures still gets me with it’s perfect simplicity.

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. — Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality