I once found his books entertaining—his wild imagination more than compensated for his shortcomings (especially as a prose stylist). But with each passing year, his novels are a little less fun, and a lot more disturbing. But that doesn't diminish their value.

Ted Gioia

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literaturefictionliterary-criticism

Even the most sincere promise is but a tenuous handshake — not between us and others, but between our present selves and our future selves. Nothing is more discomposing to our self-image than watching ourselves break a true promise on the edge of the awful recognition that our future selves are only ever a fantasy of who we would like to be, not a prediction of who we will become.

Maria Popova

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identityself-continuitydecision-making

We are all such accidents. We do not make up history and culture. We simply appear, not even as random as that, for we are each the result of one particular egg meeting one particular sperm, when so easily it might have been another.

Marilynne Robinson — Mother Country

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mortalitycontingencyidentity