Such is life, imaginary or otherwise: a continuous parting of ways, a constant flux of approximation and distanciation, lines of fate intersecting at a point which is no-time, a theoretical crossroads fictitiously ‘present,’ an unstable ice floe forever drifting between was and will be.

Worry wasn’t an emotion to which he was particularly accustomed – and it worried him.

Finally, we entered Chetaube County, my imaginary birthplace, where the names of the little winding roads and minuscule mountain communities never failed to inspire me: Yardscrabble, Big Log, Upper, Middle and Lower Pigsty, Chicken Scratch, Cooterville, Felchville, Dust Rag, Dough Bag, Uranus Ridge, Big Bottom, Hooter Holler, Quickskillet, Buck Wallow, Possum Strut... We always say a picture speaks a thousand words, but isn’t the opposite equally true?

The feeling was less like chemical intoxication than being drunk on life. Spinning round and round, he experienced absolute bliss – unadulterated and unconfined – in which he transcended his own personality and became one with everything he perceived.

Life is too short to waste being a productive member of society.

If engaging in peaceful protests makes you a terrorist, then, yeah, he’s a terrorist.

In his mother’s honor, vowing not to commit the “fashionable stupidity” of ignoring things he didn’t understand, Max performed a brave act of nonconformity by accepting the possibility that his dreams might be exactly what they seemed: real.

Begging is much more difficult than it looks. Contrary to popular belief, it’s a high art form that takes years of dedicated practice to master.

Down below people were clipping by going nowhere fast. You could feel the long despairing history of the place. You could actually hear it, a low hum like the buzz of a sick bee that resonated with the fragments of a million broken dreams.

May the Luminous Child awaken in you.